Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Cathy. I have had a similar experience when teaching. It’s very difficult for young children especially to sit through an hour long lesson. They are much more engaged when the lesson is broken up: 20 minutes of individual impromptu writing, a short educational video, a quiz on the video, a short lesson, a group writing activity to practice what they’ve just learned, etc.

Love your point about how technology is making learning more fun. I remember taking a European history class and several of the students scored A’s on the exams because they had played computer games like Age of Empires and knew all of the history facts.

My son learned multiplication tables easier by blasting problems in a space-themed learning game then he did by just saying them over and over orally. Likewise, my daughter learned a lot more about Sam Houston by making an interactive PowerPoint presentation then she would have by doing a traditional report. I think technology is making classrooms better and learning more fun.

Love your perspective! Yes! I agree wholeheartedly. Schools need to have technology classes, but they also need music and art classes and everything else that makes for well-rounded individuals.

I didn’t see that article. Thanks! I’m going to read it now. For anyone else who is interested, here’s the link. This is such a fascinating topic. It seems that technology really is rewiring our brains.

That’s quite interesting about how technology helps young children remember events that happened early in their childhood. I hadn’t thought of that, but I can definitely relate. My parents used camcorders to record all kinds of events during my childhood. They also took hundreds of pictures. Growing up, I used to love watching the “family videos” and flipping through all of the photo albums. I think it really helped to give me vivid memories of my childhood, even from as early as two years old.

Sounds like your daughter is quite bright for her age! 🙂

It’s hard to argue that technology hasn’t changed anything, because it obviously has.

I think the real problem is not technology or a lack thereof. The problem is trying to say that every teacher and every classroom should be the same. (You’re not saying that, but that’s the vibe some education professionals give off.)

Students need diversity. They need the teacher that’s all about technology. They need the teacher that’s all about going outside to plant flowers. And they need the teachers that are everywhere else on the spectrum.

The beauty of school to me was always experiencing the different teachers from class to class, semester to semester, and year to year. It gave me something new to think about, a new and different way to think about the world.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Tammy. I actually completed the first year and a half of my college degree through online classes — I loved having the ability to manage the coursework around my own schedule and watch the video lectures when I had the time to do so, rather than being restricted to a Professor’s schedule. Of course, I also enjoyed the college classes I took on campus, but I think that it is great that technology has now made education available to anyone with a computer and internet connection.

Thanks for commenting, Ethan. Yes, a well-rounded individual needs to have an understanding of the real world too. It’s like watching a film of a foreign country. You’ll learn a little about the country, but you’ll only have a partial knowledge. You aren’t able to fully understand and appreciate the country until you travel there and experience it for yourself.

Great point about how we also need to learn how technology works. Just wrote a post about that here.

I also think that if someone is going to use technology that they should have a basic understanding of how it works. We don’t want a generation of kids who depending on something daily that they don’t even understand.