ramy's blog

As I watched the student profiles, I couldn’t help but think that I graduated from high school six years ago without ever taking a computer class or needing to know anything more than how to type in a word document. I watched profiles of Dylan and Virginia, an eighth and ninth grader. My impression is that they represent some of the most driven students, who now have the technology access that gives them the ability to connect globally and accomplish something truly significant.

I was really impressed with the video I watched about ThinkQuest (www.thinkquest.org). Students working in groups with students all across the globe to design a website—wow! I was also happy to hear a middle school director in the Educating the Digital Generation video talk about how laptops now should be “standard issue” just as a pen and paper were a few decades ago. It would be nice to see schools move in that direction, where students have more consistent access throughout their school day.

This High Tech Connections article hit on one of my biggest concerns about technology. It discusses how being so tied to technology causes us to lose our ability to simply be present. For students today, they may even struggle to develop proper social skills. As a primary teacher, I also feel that it is developmentally essential for young students to be use technology but also experience real things hands-on. We can’t lose that balance.

Many of the examples I see are students much older than mine. It’s hard for me to picture what this looks like for six-year-olds, and I would love to find more examples of technology-rich primary classrooms. I love the idea of laptops being more standard and more accessible. How else will they learn it if they don’t just DO it?