Life Blogging

I really enjoyed Lisa's blog this week. In it, she mentioned that she has a hard time getting into technology if she doesn't see it as valuable in the classroom. I totally understand, and have similar issues. My biggest issue is that there is just too much stuff out there, and I don't have time (who does?) to become an avid user of all of it. Therefore, I have to choose carefully the things that I feel will benefit me the most, and pretty much ignore the rest. It's difficult, especially since I plan on teaching college students. They're like teenagers, only worse! :) They are ravenous consumers of all kinds of technology, and I need to stay on top of it and try to incorporate it into their learning experience.

I also liked the picture Lisa included in her blog - it really took me back! I remember when I was in high school, I thought I was so cool because I had a pager. Not a cell phone, a pager. It had 2 buttons on it, and displayed whatever phone numbers my friends entered when they called the phone number. We found creative ways of using pagers to communicate more than just phone numbers, though. We developed numeric codes that meant different things, and while it didn't work as well as a cell phone, we managed to have pretty detailed conversations with numbers only. I always knew when my best friend had met a hot guy, or when there was an emergency ("911"). Sure, the technology was nothing compared to what we have now, but it allowed us to be creative and learn the devices inside and out. Now, I have a cell phone, iPod, etc., and I don't understand or use half of the features available to me. When I was younger, I never dreamed that pagers would become obsolete. Now, they're really only used by doctors (and restaurants, to let you know your table is ready). Technology can be really intimidating, and if you're not careful, it's easy to let it get away from you. I feel like I'm in constant danger of becoming a dinosaur, and I'm not even in my third decade of life yet!