Children and Technology

Today at work I learned something new and slightly disturbing.  If disturbing is the right word for it.  A lady, who is a teacher, came in the office and told us about a new technology that her particular district is about to embrace when school starts back in the fall.  I don't remember what grade she teaches but at this point it hardly matters.

At any rate, she told us that the district is about to acquire...crap I forgot what she called it.  Anyway, it's some kind of little Tablet or Kindle-type device.  Every child gets one for their very own, they pay very low payments for them until they're paid up, etc etc etc.  And I was like, "Oh, that's very cool.  That's nice," yada yada yada...

Until I learned that they are designed to replace text books.

And notebook paper.

I was completely appalled.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned.  I was in school JUST BEFORE the world became completely dependent on technology.  I graduated just before the "take your cell phone to school" era and the "i" everything era and all the mobile technology as far as the eye could see.

I grew up and was taught on good old fashioned paper and no.2 pencil.

And I believe I am better for it.

Everyone learns differently.  But I believe that to some extent, in one way or another, we are all some type of visual learner.  I honestly don't think I would have learned anything if I didn't have to flip through a text book and write it all down.  I believe the act of researching text does wonders for the mind.  There's nothing like something in a text book catching your eye on your way to researching the subject at hand, and taking a moment to stop and learn something new.  Pages were so much easier to flip back and forth than having to hit "back" buttons and waiting on new windows to load or worrying about your battery life or whether you're getting any service or reception.  With a text book you didn't have that underlying fear that "what if something happens and I am unable to finish my homework??"

When I took a test, I remember subjects that would jump out at me and I would think, "oh yeah, I remember looking that up and reading about that," and having that visual of flipping through the book and remembering the page layout and how you found it and then the light bulb comes on and you figure out your answer.  A text book would never fail you.  Ever.

I grew up in an era where technology was strictly for recreational purposes.  At the time, there was nothing I needed on the Internet that I couldn't find in a book.  I grew up in a time where the distraction from my homework was another BOOK.  I feel like books are sorely being taken for granted nowadays and that is truly, truly sad. 

I don't have any children.  But when I do, I don't want my children to go to school without text books.  I feel like text books are fundamental to a child's mental development.  Certain technologies are still associated with play time for children.  I realize that technology is swiftly advancing and technological learning is becoming the norm, but that doesn't mean that we need to throw away the basics.  How will a child effectively learn what he needs to learn if he's staring at a screen all day?  On a device that he goes home and plays games on?  How is his math or grammar going to stick if he's not taking notes and writing papers?  Text book work and note-taking and paper-writing not only stimulate the mind, but they also teach the mind to be disciplined.  Helps the child to learn their own mind, learn the way their own mind works, how learning is best for them, and how to find answers and solutions.  To LEARN.  Hand-made projects are not only educational, but are stimulating the child's creativity and giving them independence to learn something on their own.

When children are clicking buttons and taking online tests, where's the learning?  Teachers no longer become teachers, but tutors or monitors who are simply there to answer questions or troubleshoot said technology.  Where is the one-on-one learning?  Where is the enrichment of the child's mind?  The mentoring the teachers provide?  It will be in their students' hands on a screen. That sickens me.

The lady today said that since our world is getting more and more dependent on technology, they feel like these kids need to get an early start on it so that they may find jobs after they graduate and be more technologically inclined.  I say that most kids get plenty of familiarity with technology on their own time.  Hell, 2-year-olds can hack into cell phones now.  Do you really need to deprive Charlie Brown of a sufficient and adequate education?

Some of you, especially my teacher friends, may disagree with me.  Some may agree with me.  But it's very tempting to put my future children through home school if that's the way it's going to be.  I don't want my child's entire life to be staring at a screen.  I want work sheets, and notes and outlines, and the teacher delivering her lesson on the board.  Hand-held technology has no place in school.  At LEAST not until high school.

I understand this is a very poorly-written blog.  I promise they're not all this bad.  Unfortunately this is one of those subjects where, not only should I have spent more time on it, but it's one of those where you know exactly how you feel but putting it into words is a whole different ballgame.

I dunno.

Anyway, it's late.  I'm kind of sleepy.  Maybe I'll revisit this subject at a later date, with a clearer mind and a smidge more eloquence.

Until next time!  (Insert witty send-off here.)

Um, Did I Not Already Say "Getting Started?"

Forgive me.

I have needed an outlet for awhile.  I've been thinking long and hard about starting a blog because I feel like I have tons to say and plenty to write, but no real secure place to put it all.  Trust me, Facebook is no safe place to post anything, honestly.  You have to be careful not to offend anyone, but worse is you have to watch what you say for fear your employers are big-brothering your every move.

In a blog, or any type of writing outlet, I can be whoever I want (Melody Bradshaw is not my real name. I couldn't get lucky enough to be given a name with such flair that rolls off the tongue!).  I can write what I want--my gripes, my woes, my questions and ponderings, my rants and raves and reviews of whatever I might want to review.  I am a complete grammar Nazi but I believe in the freedom to write in any style you please just so long as you at least appear to be aware that what you're doing actually IS wrong and it looks like you wrote it that way on purpose.  Like this paragraph, for example.  This may possibly be the poorest paragraph I have ever written on so many levels.  But who cares??  Viva creative writing!  And spell check...

At any rate, so I'm brand spanking new at this blogging stuff.  This might be bumpy for awhile, as I have no idea what I'm doing here.  Except the actual blogging part.  That much I pretty much have down pat.  But navigating this little blog site?  Not so much.

I would love to write professionally.  I don't believe in going to journalism school or some junk like that just to waste time to prove you have a little talent.  If you have the talent, the rest should fall into place.  Unless you actually WANT to report all the bad news you can report in the newspaper, then be my guest.  But I would love to write opinion pieces, or even reviews, professionally.  And I don't feel like opinion pieces and reviews should garner a degree.  Talent is talent and if people decide they give a crap about your opinion, then they'll read it.  I highly doubt readers are digging into every author's college background before they decide to take their opinions into consideration.

So for now, I start small.  I know this little Google blog isn't going to go anywhere or turn me into the most fantabulously famous blogger in all the world or anything like that.  I'm not an idiot.  Just a dreamer.  However, this little Google blogger site WILL get me some practice in the blogging world.  Just as soon as I master the site. 

I am also long-winded (long-written?) when I write.  Once I start, it just comes out and out and out and half the time I don't even know what I'm typing.  Kind of like now.  It's just so much fun to write, whether I write well or not.  I don't care.  You remember in high school, when your English teacher would give you a few minutes of "free writing" at the beginning of class to write about whatever you wanted to?  To just write anything and everything off of the top of your head, "Aaaaand, go!"  And you went, "WTF am I supposed to do here?"  And your mind drew a complete blank and you look around and see everyone writing feverishly and turning pages over and junk and by the time the five minutes is up your classmates are turning in novels and all you've written down is, "My name is Sally and my dog's name is Fido." ? (<--major grammar mistake there)  That was me.  And I was a hella writer back then!  But when free writing time came up, my writer's block from hell came out and I hated it!  Anyway, where the hell was blogging back then?  If you'd have handed me a computer and said, "Aaaaand, go!  Free writing time!" then I'd have not only smoked the rest of the kids in my class, but I would have ALSO won the friggin Pulitzer Prize and had my own personal scene out of A Christmas Story where the teacher writes A+++++++++ across the board, celebrating the greatest piece of American literature she'd have ever laid her eyes on.

But I digress.

I wasn't that good.

And I'm still not, but who wants to read something by someone who lacks complete confidence?  Seriously.

Sometimes I can be witty.  Sometimes I can be goofy funny.  Sometimes I can be downright heartless and crude and harsh.  Actually that last one is pretty often.  Sometimes I can be inquisitive.  Sometimes I can be extremely radically biased and opinionated.  And sometimes certain members of my friends and family consider me as a sort of free therapist.  I admit I give out AWESOME AS ALL AWESOME advice that I haven't followed myself.  I think that pretty much qualifies me to be a professional therapist.  Wonder how much I should charge?  Anyway, the point is, you never know what you're going to end up reading when you open this thing up.  Or how often.  If I dedicate the amount of time that I would WANT to dedicate to it, then I would likely get no sleep, my boyfriend would find himself a wife and move her in around me, and my best friend would lock me up like the crazy lady locked the author up in Misery and demanded that I finish a particular piece of fiction that I am currently working on that is pretty much top secret only for she and I.

I can't promise that I won't post anything politically or religiously involved, but I can promise that if I do, it would be a RARE occasion.  Those are subjects I don't really like to touch, unless there is something I see or read that seriously enrages me.  But I don't really watch the news, so that isn't much.  "Ignorance is bliss" never held more meaning than for someone who refuses to watch the news.  Like me.  Everyone says, "It is so important to watch the news!"  Not really.  Not really at all.  I don't need to see every single depressing story in the world that has absolutely nothing to do with me.  Watching the news makes people see shrinks.  Not the little pretend therapist advice that I dish out, but the real ones, who can prescribe the fun stuff.  I am on a need-to-know basis with the news.  Nothing surprises me anymore.  Unless Jesus comes to my door and asks for a beer, or I wake up to find a nuclear missile in my front yard, then I prefer to keep it pretty light-hearted and scandal-free.

Okay, I'm babbling.  Actually this whole post has been babbling.  Perhaps I should have titled it "Babble."  But I'm keeping the titles as they are.  I'm going to attempt to get SOME type of decent sleep tonight, for the first time this week.  I am a night owl, I am not a morning person.

Until next time!  (Insert witty send-off here.)