Technology.. in my classroom?

My parents always talk about 'Back in the day...' and 'When I was your age...' when discussing school. I tell them about how I have online classes, and they never fail to mention their crazy nuns who would rasp them with rulers. I suppose my point is just that things have changed from then to today, with many benefits if you ask me!
Instead of packing a 50+ pound backpack with sorted random crap unnecessary for learning, but required by teachers (80 page notebooks, 3 inch binders that never get full, books, textbooks, packets, folders, loose leaf paper because notebooks are inadequate, more notebooks just 'cause, over 9000 pens and never a single pencil, colored pencils since we do artwork I suppose, markers for the same reason, and since I have downtime in my class I also carry a laptop around) we can now just bring what is really necessary for school, our iPads, a notebook for paper, a few pens and pencils, and a brain! Honestly thinking back to middle school when there was no technological integration with what we do, there is a stark and surprising difference between back then and today. Being a member of the STEP-UP program our teachers are doing a great deal in order to help further the technological integration into our classroom materials and activities. For example, right now I'm working on a technology based assignment; my blog.




The main and most stressed benefit of integrating technology into the school environment is that of real life application. Now a days if you enter the work force, you're either gonna be doing manual labor, or sitting behind a desk and typing all day working towards that inevitable carpel tunnel syndrome either way. But sitting at desks in school writing notes from a random teacher each class period then writing a 3 page paper by hand on the types of soil found in the different layers of the earth is going to have about a zero percent help to you in the real world. But now with the integration of technology it isn't just typing notes, it's making them ourselves, it's using the interwebs in order to research and discover the answers ourselves, not just looking in the index of our textbooks for page 58, then going to paragraph two where the section is bolded.... no matter how enticing that might sound.

I suppose my main argument is just that technology helps, and don't say otherwise.. or you'll be left in my generation's dust.