This week’s lecture by Jesse Miller was focused mainly on social media and how nothing really goes away on the internet. I grew up with social media from middle school on and I remember countless assemblies on internet safety in school. I always found it interesting that people who didn’t grow up with technology were telling us things so I didn’t take them seriously as a kid. As I’ve grown up I’ve seen the benefit of these speakers because I try my best to remain “clean” on the internet. We were told on Monday to search up our name and city in Google. I had to do some digging but I luckily didn’t find anything bad, just my account which I’ve made private and some old articles mentioning my name. This search made me relax. I think the scare tactics some teachers used were never effective and for most kids in schools now they have only ever grown up with technology in their life. When I coach I notice it, the middle schoolers come in on their phones and only put them down when it’s time for class. I think technology has its benefit but you need to create an environment where children can have a healthy relationship with it. I liked what Jesse said about brain breaks. For older children I think using phone breaks as a reward is great because it gives them a set time to be focused and doesn’t create a hostile environment of taking phones/hiding their phones in desks. I think this week’s lecture has allowed me to reflect on how to responsibly integrate technology into my classroom in an affective way to better my students education. Technology is not going anywhere anytime soon so you have to learn how to work with it and not against it.
Extra information:
Jesse’s Tedx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiGclrVXAws&feature=emb_title
