Week 1 - Blog - Evolutionary Dependency?

 In 1984 James Cameron came out with a little filmed called "The Terminator".  In the film, technology becomes so advanced that it ends up becoming self aware, and seeing the human race as essentially a virus that it needs to terminate for its own survival.  This all transpires because technology grew so big so fast without integrating and understanding this technology in everyday lives.  Now, currently, we are nowhere near that disastrous and bleak future, but it does not mean that there are not signs that could lead to a similar outcome.  In the video "A Vision of K-12 Students Today", you would have to be blind not to see the dire consequences of not tightening up the bolts around a suitable 21st century educational infrastructure.  There exists a comparison between integrating technology into the 21^st century classroom, and the plot of "The Terminator”.  It may seem totally unrelated, but is it really that crazy of a comparison?  We have the potential and know how to create, but we keep creating without taking into full account, the effects on our everyday lives.  Like it or not, technology is an integral part of the world in which we live, and we really have two choices, integrate technology into the classroom, and use it to help the human race evolve, or keep going with old and outdated ways, because, and this is an assumption, there exists fear within the older academic community of these unknown technological ingenuities that exist to excel us as a species, and possibly bring the world to a better place in the cosmos.

History teaches us that you can only use a technique, and a way of doing something for so long before it becomes outdated, and starts to work against you.  The telephone, for instance, or the automobile are two examples of technological advancements that gave the world two similar choices like the choices laid out before us today.  It is extremely possible that similar feelings were felt by the masses when those two technological advancements were introduced to the people.  Just imagine what the world would be like, if the world did not integrate those things.  In addition, the invention and integration of the printing press hundreds of years before, would not have allowed automobiles and telephones to spread knowledge, and current events like they did.  In many instances, with similar opinions, integrating newly developed technologies into the classroom can have the same historical significance as the printing press, telephone and automobile.

It is integral to our survival as a species that we familiarize our students with technology.  The only way to know that we are familiarizing them with technology is to use it in the classroom.  This does not mean we have to change the subject material in order to use technology, on the contrary.  It means that more subject areas and more material can be covered more efficiently.  In the end, this will help students learn at the speed in which they are already getting used to, and that is the immediate, instant gratification of finding something out, right away.  It is not their fault that the world is changing, so why punish them?  This is the future that is laid out before us, so what are we going to do?