It Brings Gifts or Stabs You in the Back

"Technology... is a queer thing.  It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other." 

  ~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971

It seems that technology has been getting a bad rap these days.  Now, I'm all for technology, but I know it is not the be all, end all.  We have created some great projects at my school using technology this year, such as Digital Scrapbooks of the 1920's, podcasts describing what life was like in the Victorian Era of Charles Dickens'  England, movies as a persuasion to better our world, just to name a few.  

But there are those days when technology can get the better of us.  I couldn't get online last week at home for a mere 24 hours and just about went crazy. To my credit, I did have two papers to write and needed to get on blackboard to verify my assignments and needed to grade work for one of my online students. I did NEED the internet at this time.  I WANTED to get online and post some blog posts too, but I decided I could wait on that, I DIDN'T NEED it that badly.
 
I'm hearing more and more thought, that there are those out there that say technology is meddling with our children's minds and making them less sociable beings.  I turned on the t.v. last week to an episode of Oprah in which the entire family wasn't communicating.  They needed Oprah's help in getting their lives back on track.  They weren't eating dinner together, they spent more time on cell phones, housework wasn't getting done, etc.  However, for the few minutes I watched, I felt that technology was getting the blame for all of their problems. The specialist on the episode said, they have to drop the technology and get to know one other on a personal level and to an extent I agree.   

Like I said, technology is not everything and like the quote says above, there's good and bad to technology.  Spending time with my loved ones would be my preferable way to spend my time. However, my family is spread out between Ohio, Virginia, and Florida.  While growing up, my closest family members were 8 hours away! I really didn't feel as if I knew most of them. Not well, anyways. Most of my family members are not on facebook, but for those that have recently signed up, I've learned more about them in the last few months, than I've learned in my entire lifetime.  The good stuff, people! Not the so and so is doing this with their boyfriend stuff...I'm talking about things like favorite colors, favorite foods, the kinds of things that make them tick!  I see family connections and similarities I didn't see before.

At some point though, I think each person has to take responsibility for what they do with technology and how much they use it.  Should students be allowed to use technology 24/7?  No, they need fresh air, time to communicate through something other than facebook and a cell phone, and time to rest those eyes from a computer screen.  Everyone could exercise some self-control when it comes to technology and unplug from it every day.  

I set times up for myself each night when I get home and if I'm doing classwork, I work until I get to my stopping point on the assignment. If I don't have classwork, I'll check my email, look at facebook real quick, and other  sites I want to check up on and I turn off my computer for the night, it's a hour max.  Weekends, I barely look at my email unless I know I have something planned and need to communicate with others.  Sundays I work on blog posts and that's it.  

Student do need to be taught that time away from technology won't hurt them, but I think it's unfair to take it away entirely.  Students can communicate and collaborate with students their age in foreign countries, create videos that make us adults stand up and pay attention.  They CAN learn from one another using technology.