Today was my second day of Graduate school after 8 years away from college and working in the “real world”. I consider myself a relatively technologically competent person, but after our first class, I am not sure that I am. I have an MP3 player, Sirius radio, a laptop, a computer, a cell phone and a TV in almost every room in my house. The problem is, in class we watched a video about technology and how it is growing and it blew my mind. I can not believe how fast things in this world are changing. I knew things had changed last summer when my wives niece (8)and nephew(12) came to a family dinner and they came with a portable DVD player, 2 cell phones an ipod and some electronic pet thing. I asked them why they were not out side playing on such a beautiful day and they both looked at me like I was an idiot and said that it was boring outside. I was very upset by this comment because when I was a kid we would spend countless hours outside with no technological gadgets to entertain us. Now that I look back on this day I see that I am acting just like my parents and their parents before them by ostracizing the younger generation where I, especially as a new educator, need to try to embrace and utilize the new technologies to help make learning interesting for the next generation. I guess the old saying is true, “if you cant beat them, join them”. I guess its time for me to catch up with the times, lets just hope I’m ready!!!!
