Technology and "Our" generation, with "their" generation

by Susie Kim

So I was thinking about how we can incorporate technology into our classroom, not for instructional reason (though that is what I should be thinking about) but to catch-up to "our" generation. Granted that "our" generation is older than "their" generation, we still grew up with more technology and new gadgets than our own teachers. When I mean by "our" generation, I mean the individuals who were born around the 1980s-1990s who were born with some technology, and grew up with the computer. As we all know, the computer and the internet did not really bloom until the 1990s (when I was in middle school) and after the Y2K, the internet was a contagious commodity of our time. We grew up with MTV's TRL, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon BallZ, as well as the then "new" beepers and cellphones. When my dad had a beeper it was so cool and green! I wanted one! But now we are exposed to Blackberrys, iPads, Netbooks, etc... beepers are WAY out-of-date!

Going back to what I was originally saying, "our" generation-- the group of people who were born in the 1980s-1990s who grew up with the internet and modern technology-- are closely related to "their" generation-- our students who have and are accustomed to modern technology as part of their lives, we are at an advantage to connect with our students than the experienced, veteran teacher. We can connect to our students by sharing to each other what makes alike: growing up with a cell-phone (well, high school for me), having the internet as an informational resource, MySpace and Facebook pages, digital cameras, the mechanical pencil, Harry Potter and Twilight (at least for me). All these trends are popular then as they are now which changes perspectives in teaching. As we’ve learned in class, technology must be incorporated into every classroom and adapted to the growing technology as our students are adapting to them. Soon, we will be looking at our internet through 3-D glasses, or having touch-screen computer screens as interactive tools for our classrooms (when the prices go down, that is).

We must adapt to technology, rather than adapting technology adapting to the classroom. This will be a difficult endeavor to us educators and our pockets, but we have to engage our students’ interest in a more up-to-date way that our students are exposed to in their lives, to enhance their educational experiences.