Blog Post #13

     This weeks blog post has been a hard one to complete for 2 simple reasons: finals are just around the corner, and the very nature of this assignment. The assignment is as stated: "Do not use any electronic (powered by electricity or batteries) entertainment or communications device (except a land line telephone or in the course of your employment) for 24 consecutive hours. If you break this activity by using a banned device, you must start the activity over again. After the third attempt (or a successful conclusion, whichever comes first), write a post in which you describe the outcome of the activity; discuss its difficulty for you; specifically identify what made the activity difficult (or easy); discuss the help (or interference) by others and identify those others and their relationship to you; reflect on what you learned about the media and about yourself as a result of the exercise. Finally, reflect on what your students will be like when they arrive in your classroom after living lives filled with media and no 'e-media fasts.'"

     I've been trying to get this done, but it's been challenge on a few different levels. The first of them being that all of the classes notes (particularly this one) are on the internet. I can easily recall multiple occasions when I have chosen not to use such electronics for a period of time greater than a day, but mostly all of the instances that I can remember I have been intentionally "off the grid" and isolated myself to get closer in my relationship with my God. It's easy to do when you put yourself in such situations because you're in the mindset and the atmosphere/culture/newly created society that doesn't implore the use of electronic devices...at least for a few days or a week. Sometime's even a month or more. I personally don't see how people can fully isolate themselves away from the world, they're missing so much awesomeness! *Yes, awesomeness is a word, the spellchecker just said so.*

     I believe that even if technology weren't so heavily integrated into our school's curriculum that this assignment could still be quite hard for many many people, including myself. We as american citizens reap the highest quality life that this world has to offer, and we're always looking for something else to do, why? Because we hate being bored. However, since we have all the amazing accessories that we do, such as iPods, iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, and portable video gaming devices, we never have to worry about that awful feeling of boredom. There are so many material objects that have been created over the years that have influenced the evolution of American society and the meaning of living in the world today. Technology has made itself a near necessity in this world.

     This brings me to my final objective: "Reflect on what your students will be like when they arrive in your classroom after living lives filled with media." As stated before, the very purpose of this class is to enlighten the students of the significance of technology and how to successfully incorporate tech into the educational experience, which kind of goes hand in hand with "what is the significance of being an Educator compared to a teacher". As an educator, encouraging students to be life long learners is one of my responsibilities and is an easily attainable goal with the application of technology in the classroom. With that being said, and knowing my chosen career path, I'm not exactly sure how much technology will be utilized in my classroom, but I have a pretty good feeling that when it is, it will most definitely be a fun, enjoyable hands on learning experience.