techno-dependence

alright folks, this one is short and sweet.

we are so dependent on technology. knowing about it and how to use it has become a very critical aspect to our daily lives. just the other day, we were providing our students with time during class to type up their papers that were soon due. not all of the students have computers at home. the question that arose for me as an english teach is this: english class has always been there to teach students about communication and language. but technology has taken that definition to the next step. a student who cannot type will fare very poorly in today's english classroom, while he or she could have done perfectly fine twenty or thirty years ago. have we become too dependent on technology?

a conversation in the grad lab the other day poked some light hearted fun at this issue. we were talking about our thoughts concerning what we have learned thus far in MAC. among the comical responses we were offering up, someone said that one thing they've learned is that before MAC, they were able to live without a laptop, but now they cannot survive without one. we all agreed that we would most likely purchase macbooks in june.

we are the smart kids

when i was in high school, i almost always did very well. (except for in English, where i got only B's and C's, which is terribly ironic...) however, i also KNEW i would do well. i remember going into AP biology exams feeling very confident i would get at least a 95%. i would play little games with myself to see if i could get exactly 95% every time. indeed, i was a big nerd, and it's a wonder that i had friends in high school.

when i came to college, i was very nervous about doing well. i was taking two of the lsa's toughest weeder courses at the same time. but i came out of high school so confident in my brilliance that i didn't even care. i had the freshman dream. [get great grades, work out every day, and have a hot girlfriend]

when i got my first exam back, it had a big 39 on it. i looked at my gsi, "was this scaled to a 40 or 50 point scale?" he looked at me with a look of confusion, "this is out of 120." a part of me died at that moment. from then on, i was TERRIFIED of exams. i had this notion that i was bad a calc and orgo, and i couldn't seem to get over it.

this trend continued throughout my freshman year and it wasn't until sophomore year that i came out of my slump. it was cognitive psych class, and i was going into the final. i had an average of 86%, but the final was worth quite a bit. my grade could still sway either way. the realization came to me the morning before the final. the difference was confidence and self-perception. as i sat down for my final, i said to myself, "you're going to ace this exam. you're probably the smartest guy in this room right now." grade on final exam: 116/117. grade in class: A

while i am at Belleville, i constantly hear kids/teachers talking about how dumb they are or how bad they are at whatever. while i'm at the International Academy, i constantly hear kids/teachers talking about how great they are and how good their school is. maybe it is arrogance, but maybe it is reinforcing an attitude of excellence.

maybe if you get a bunch of kids to really believe they are the smart kids, then they really will BE the smart kids.