Technology: Good or Bad for Kids?

Technology can be a very good thing. For one, it allows people to communicate almost instantly across the world. Computers let people create projects that were only imagined ten years ago, such as videos, power points, and downloading music. Children are picking up on this advanced technology. As the new teachers said in our "New Teachers Panel" on Monday, February 23, students, even as young as fourth grade, are learning to rely on computers for their source of entertainment and communication. When one teacher mentioned that his students did not want to go out to recess because they wanted to play on their computer instead. This issue came up when we discussed Erikson's developmental stages from Chapter Three. Part of learning to be a kid is to form trusting and lasting relationships with friends and families. However, with all the new technology, students are spending more time forming online relationships than communicating with other students in person.

Take the creation of such social communications as MySpace and Facebook. Undoubtedly, Facebook is the current trend and the way to talk with almost anyone you could want to. Being a Facebook user myself, I believe Facebook can be very beneficial. I am able to keep in contact with many of my friends from high school while we are across the country (or in different countries for that matter) for college. Facebook is a handy tool to have in order to maintain relationships and network with people. The transition into college can always be made a little easier because you can meet people on Facebook before you come on campus. Yet, i know that Facebook is not meant to replace personal contact with these people. Deeper friendships are made when a majority of the contact can be done in person.

However, Facebook definitely does have its disadvantages. Some kids take Facebook to the extreme, spending up to nearly five hours on the computer chatting and looking at friend's profiles. While the chat feature is nice, I feel like it is starting to replace real-life, face-to-face relationships. Some people are dating people they only met online and have actually never done anything together in person. From personal experience, getting to know someone in a chat setting can be nice but it does not bring the same satisfaction as talking in person. That kids would rather sit on the computer and talk with friends instead of going for a walk with their friends or getting together to play is really sad.

And we're wondering why children these days seem to have insufficient communications and writing skills! First of all, Facebook definitely does not function with the Standard English forms you learn in school. The cyberspace world is filled with so many abbreviations that it is hard to keep up. This translates into student's daily lives. I have seen some papers or vocabulary tests where the slang used on places such as Facebook are used. Students have no understanding that to be taken seriously in the real world, they simply cannot use abbreviations such as "lol" and "brb." Also, many students lack interpersonal skills in school because many of their relationships are strictly online. This affects the way students develop. In fact, Erikson's stages of trust, intimacy, and even identity can be affected by students lack of face-to-face conversation. They simply do not learn how to read people as well or how to compromise and work in groups- everything online is typically one-on-one.

Do not get me wrong. Technology does have advantages in schools. Teachers just have to take care to monitor the amount it is used in schools. If we want to reverse this trend, we need to focus on personal communication by having group discussions and encouraging students to speak up in class.

"Paperclips"

I thought the documentary "Paperclips" was really intriguing. It was such a great idea on the part of the school! By creating a project where each and every student can be involved is tricky but very effective in teaching students a certain context. The project really modeled John Dewey's theory of education. The students of Whitwall Middle School, thanks to the commitment of the teachers, were dedicated to collecting millions of paperclips in order to learn about the Holocaust. Through the physical amount of paperclips, the students were able to grasp how many people were killed during the Holocaust. I also thought that having survivors come and speak to the class was very effective as well because it gave the students emotional learning and development that they may not have received otherwise.

At the same time, I believe there are some things the teachers could have done to make the project better. By implementing Dewey's theory, students gained a lot of knowledge by active engagement; however, it did not appear that they learned a lot of textbook information. I thought the teachers of Whitwall could have involved more direct teaching than they used. The combination of the high active students and the factual information would have led the students to a broader understanding of the whole issue. These lectures would also allow the students to see both perspectives of the Holocaust--to see why Hitler thought what he was doing was right and why it took people so long to discover what was going on.

Another thing Whitwell could have improved upon was addressing the wider diversity issue. Yes, they tackled religious diversity through their study of the Holocaust but I feel like the did not address racial and/or gender discrimination. Racial diversity and discrimination is a larger issue in the United States today than religious diversity is. I think it is important for students to learn early on, especially those in nearly all white schools, that everyone is equal and needs to be respected. If diversity were addressed early in a child's life, I believe we would find ourselves with a much more tolerant society. It is intolerance and lack of understanding within the realms of diversity that are causing many of the world's problems. I think to move away from that trend, teachers need to teach about all forms of diversity to their students in very real ways (such as the Paperclip project).

The paperclip project was very encouraging. I commend Whitwell Middle School for educating their students about diversity in a way that will change their lives forever. However, this project, and all future projects, could be even more effective with an increased use of textbooks and lectures. I also think it is important to address all the aspects of diversity and not just focus on one kind of diversity.