Tech in the classroom

So I'm not what anyone, besides my grandma and her lovely friends, might call technologically savvy. Well, I know how to use my cell phone and an iPod (though I don't have one), and I know my way around a Mac pretty well. But these days, that's considered the most basic knowledge. My 11 year old brother, who never used Mavis Beacon in school like I did, and has been alive the entire time that the internet has been all the rage, is better at just about everything that has to do with technology. And he lets me know it.

Last semester I went to a workshop on campus about the future of technology in schools and that's when it really hit me: I am not at all in the same technological generation as the students that I will be teaching. Even if I'm 26 and they're 16, a pretty negligible age difference 50 years ago, I will be so far behind their learning curve if I don't do stop being such a Luddite.

So what I need to learn are the tools to be able to stay in touch with the changing technologies around which my students' lives will revolve. But, as a Luddite, I also want to be reassured that it's alright for me to potentially go days, even a few weeks (!), without using computer technology in my classroom. The next generation of kids is likely going to grow up surrounded by screens, an endless flow of information, and in an increasingly disconnected world. I'd like to learn how to use technology (and not use technology) to build human connections and help my students live in an ever-changing world.