Taking a summer school course and reading Digital Storytelling in the Classroom by Jason Ohler. It is a beautifully written book. Jason is an excellent storyteller and I look forward to the rest of the book.
In his first paragraph, Ohler describes how ridiculous our modern technologies would sound to people a mere 25 years ago. Here is a link to a different version of that same story from the perspective of a grade school girl 60 years ago (found here):
Being that I am planning an extensive travel vacation, I have spent some time thinking about what the planning process might have been like 25 years ago. I try to imagine what the world was like before we had cell phones, or turn by turn direction at the click of the button, or turn by turn directions sitting on our dashboard. I actually don't even want to think about all the extra hoops people had to jump through just to plan a trip to meet a friend in a different city. A few hours of planning has turned into a few keystrokes, a click of the mouse and an emergency phone call for a detour.
With respect to my experiences in education new media technologies have been a great experience for me. Since completing my student teaching I have spent a good chunk of time reflecting on my experiences online on my blog. I have also began building a personal learning network of educators on twitter. I have seen my reflections start a wave of interest from people all over the world. This kind of connectivity has the potential to drag teachers out of the water cooler and connect them with the ideas and potential to expand our social networks to places we never would have imagined.
I think students are hungry to tell their stories and they are primed for sharing them in the digital world
3 comments:
Sometimes, if I actually want to be somewhere on time, I'll use google maps to find a location I've never been to. Otherwise, I enjoy just driving around trying to find someplace with nothing more than a map.
Once, hilariously, I drove myself and several future coworkers around Salt Lake City for several hours because I got turned around and didn't have turn by turn directions. Despite everyone swearing at me almost the whole time, it was a good time. If only for me.
Marty, thanks for the comment. Excellent story. I feel like somewhere in this grand vision of Google mapping and Google Streetviewer"ing" for the whole world, people have lost the adventure that is traveling without a digital algorithm. Like you said, when time is the issue I need Google. Otherwise, I look forward to a map and a compass.
What do you think it will be like twenty five years from now?
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