Reaction to "Those Wacky Kids" by Mark Pesce

I have been one that has enjoyed the use of technology and I am very interested in new devices or “toys”. Of course my budget doesn’t allow for much change but I must say the presentation that Mark Pesce gave with “Those Wacky Kids” left my head spinning with ideas. He talked about the interconnectivity of our world and the rapid change that our students are growing up in. The only constant in the world for our average teenager is “change”.

I don’t think that the students in our school in our little town are quite as connected as the students being described in Pesce talk, but it won’t be long before they probably are. Pesce left me wondering what I need to be doing in my own classroom and school. How do I make my classroom an engaging part of my students lives while also upholding the learning objectives given to me by our curriculum?

A few projects utilizing this technology in hyperconnectivity have come to my mind during the course of Pesce’s talk but I also have some major hurdles to get over. The biggest question that keeps coming to my mind is how to be an overseer of these projects that can properly give guidance to protect against the dangers of students who are bound to speak inappropriately to each other or do hurtful things.

The classroom is broader and has become intertwined. It will become impossible for me to step in when I need to. It is the same with parents whose lives are now becoming increasingly busy and stressful. There is no guidance, supervision or council. It is a world that “seems” to the kids as unpoliced, a place where they could say and do what they wish. They are increasingly bold behind this technology, but yet their words and decisions carry so much weight with their “co-existence”. Texting, My Space or Facebook are all places where students live most of the time and for a majority of them they are places that are unwatched by their parents or adults.

I’m excited to find out more about strategies and techniques that can set up a “focused’ and “controlled” environment where interconnectivity can be had with the presence and guidance of teachers and parents. But most importantly the presence and guidance of our Creator and Savior needs to be closer than the “co-existence” of the rest of the world.