In response to Tania’s posting about teens and technology, I agree with the fact that while students aren’t afraid to have a go when it comes to technology and computers, they are very afraid to participate in class discussions for fear of being wrong. That makes me wonder if we are placing emphasis where it is needed? Maybe we shouldn’t be pushing so much technology onto students before we can teach them to be confident and think for themselves.
I just read an article by Jamie McKenzie entitled “Stuffing technology into the curriculum” which addresses the question of “are we using technology for the sake of technology, or is this the best teaching method for our students?”
Personally I think technology is being pushed onto schools and onto teachers and while it can be a fantastic learning tool, it is not always appropriate.
I don’t believe that effective learning depends on technology and I agree with what is said in the article, that teachers should choose their teaching tools after they have actually set clear goals and strategies for the lesson, not the other way around.
In response to part of the ABC, 7:30 Report that I watched, from May 2007, I think that while technology is not to blame for teen suicide, it definitely provides a medium for them to go about it. The report is about the double suicide of 2 girls in Victoria, who posted their own death notices on MySpace the day before they disappeared.
I think the main issue here is the fact that an increase in technology is causing teens to become more and more detached from the outside world. This in turn is making them feel alienated and alone and this is a huge contributor to the rising rate of suicide amongst Australian teens. These people turn to ‘faceless’ friends who they find online and who bare such a great influence on them.
The report also talks about the rise in “emo” culture which is a culture of dark thoughts and self harm. There are numerous websites, such as vampire websites that promote self harm.
I think to myself, while this is such a terrible occurance and so are the many others that I’m certain are occuring around the world, what can we do to stop this?
Can we monitor the use of technology? I believe the answer is no, we cannot. We need to be monitoring our children and their actions. We need to know our children well enough to be able to read the signs and as the report mentions, if they’re not eating, sleeping, doing as well as usual at school, we need to get to the bottom of the problem!
