My Thoughts on Chapter 8 of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

I found this chapter to be interesting and resourceful, but I did not agree with many ideas that were presented within the chapter. There was a quote in the beginning of the chapter that read “Kids today spend over 6 hours per day interacting with television, video games, the Internet, instant messaging, email and other media. This is more time than they spend in school or with friends, and almost as much time as they spend sleeping.” I found that this quote stuck out to me because I find it as very true and I find it as one of the quick approaching situations we, as future educators, have to deal with. I do completely agree that something needs to be done to take advantage of these technologies that our future generations have become accustomed to, but I don’t think it should be done in the ways mentioned within the chapter. For example, with credentials system the book talked about, I found it interesting but difficult to actually implement. What if a student doesn’t know what career path they would eventually like to follow? As an elementary education teacher I don’t want to force my students to chose, at such a young age, what they will do with the rest of their lives. As a college student we still don’t force undecided college freshman to decide what they will do with their lives, so why would we force elementary school students?

    Personally, I don’t think I will do too much entirely different because of this direct reading. I wasn’t impressed with the various ideas that were presented in this chapter and it isn’t something I can personally use within my classroom. On the other hand, this chapter has shown me that integrating technology into my classroom is important and vital to the futures of my students. I plan to incorporate various ways that my students can use the technological tools that they are using at home to be beneficial to their lifelong learning.