Response to: "Syncing Up with the iKid: Connecting to the Twenty-First-Century Student"

The difference is startling. Using the software, the students' responses "were deeper than with pen and ink," Hamstra says. "The focus was really sharp. There's something about changing over to an electronic medium, something about that screen. It's psychological. It's a generational thing."

I completely agree with this and I don't think this is a trend. Technology is changing the way people think. It is phsycological as well as physical. I believe students are more comfortable IAMing than they are handwriting a response to a quick write.

"This generation of students is more likely to be armed with cell phones, laptops, and iPods than with spiral notebooks and No. 2 pencils."

I used to have a student that asked me for a pencil nearly every day and I told caught him texting on his cell phone several times! This is so true.

"According to Blackmore, today's brains are shaped by various information streams -- sometimes referred to as memes -- constantly popping and sparking and competing for attention. This new generation of digital learners -- call them the MEdia Generation -- take in the world via the filter of computing devices: the cellular phones, handheld gaming devices, PDAs, and laptops they take everywhere, plus the computers, TVs, and game consoles at home. A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that young people (ages 8-18) mainline electronic media for more than six hours a day, on average. Interestingly, many are multitasking -- listening to music while surfing the Web or instant-messaging friends while playing a video game."

Maybe, I just need to get with it, but I get really concerned that the way technology changes brains is not entirely healthy. Mutli-tasking has becom essential in the work world, but what will happen to being able to do one thing really well? I know when I want something done I want an expert, not a jack-of-all-trades. I also worry that people have become addicted to quick and easy stimulations and rewards in response to very little work. The old addage about the pride of completing a job well-done will become more about clicks and Internet research than about physical labor and challenging your brain.

"Of course, there's a price educators pay when they open their classes up to the world: Power tends to move from the center outward, an exact duplication of the effect of the Internet on many institutions. In March, the principal of Proctor High School, in Rutland, Vermont, banned access from school computers to MySpace, a blogging site popular with students, saying blogging isn't an "educational use of computers" and citing concerns about Internet predators."

I do think MySpace and Facebook can be dangerous and given the social connotations that are associated with these sites I do not feel they belong in the classroom. I know many teachers communicate with students through these sites and I just don't think it is appropriate to converse with students on a plain that is often used to build intimate relationships. I do think that when a blog is set-up for a class--such as this one--it holds the expectations and possibilities of the blog into the educational field. The lines between what is socially, educationally, and morally acceptable will constantly need to be redefined and monitored by educators.