Early Adopter/Luddite
Are other educators conflicted over the use and misuse of technology in schools? Are they hopeful and excited about the technological changes on horizon but also wonder what might be lost in the process if the rapid transition to the new technologies isn’t focused on deep and meaningful learning? When you’ve delivered a technology-rich, deep lesson that the kids loved and from which they learned, do you long to tell someone about it?
I hope this blog will help me find kindred spirits–people who are asking the same questions as I am–so we can move forward in the wired/wireless world together.
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When it comes to the use of technology in school or at play, I cannot classify myself as either Luddite or an early adopter. I believe that most school librarians would agree with me — particularly those “of a certain age.” When I became a librarian, using the internet was a clunky, burdensome, slow and unreliable task. Thick looseleaf notebooks containing .ftp addresses were positioned next to the one Internet-ready computer in the entire school library media division at the University of Northern Iowa. At the time, finding the information we needed in one of the thousands of tomes in the stacks took less time.
And for me, that’s what it comes down to: What is going to save time? I didn’t run to my nearest Apple store when the first personal computers appeared. I loved the ease of making corrections and editing documents that computers afforded. But the printing! Originally, printers did not spew out data in a WYSIWYG format. So, I could type a document on my IBM Selectric much faster than I could obtain the same document from a computer printer.
What did make me dip into savings to buy a computer was shopping! Yes, shopping! I don’t like malls. So, when stores began selling via the web, I was a true convert! Shopping online saves time.
So, I get it when students groan when their teacher says, “You have to have one print resource cited in your bibliography.” Finding information in books takes too much time. My job, then,
Spring on the Patio
is to convince the teacher that students can find accurate information online and that judging the reliability of information is part of our 21st century curriculum.
The time I save when I use technology I spend in the following ways:
- Spending time with my husband, dog, and cat
- Reading, sometimes print, sometimes digital
- Cooking
- Snoeshowing
- XC skiing
- Biking
- Crocheting
- Gardening
- Pontooning on the Mississippi
- Hiking
- Watching classic movies
. . . all of which beat focusing on a monitor and a keyboard, don’t you think?
