Obsolete technologies...

The first paragraph of this article is a little disturbing... (a pregnant mom describing development in terms of tech... really?!?!?) not really disturbing, but i can imagine the reaction of middle school students... "yuck," "gross," among the uncontrolled laughter. (Of course yesterday, someone wanted to do a report on the blue-footed booby... it was a long class...)

Anyways... think about some of the technologies that have been deeply embedded in your life and realize that kids born today will probably never use them...

Wired Internet at home... I remember a students in a graduate course just a few years ago who did a presentation on how she and her husband put ethernet in their house because "they wanted their kids to be  connected." By the time I taught the class again (two years later), a student did a presentation on configuring wireless routers for home use. We have about 10 network devices in our home... none use wires to connect.

Dedicated cameras... phones... I used both this week, and it struck me that I had not used either since the holidays... almost 6 months!

Phone numbers... This one I can see having a little more staying power... there are still people who we want to know by a number and not a name or contact.

Prime-time television... wow... this one is spot on. My kids and I (21 & 18) will sit and watch the Red SOX on TV and I know we watch some of the cable channels (and I watch the British Comedies on public TV), but no one in my family watches any of the prime time shows on the major networks.

It is interesting to think about the technological changes we are observing and to consider how they are changing our students brains and our society.