Technology for the Generations:

I asked myself these questions found in the article Is it Age or IT: First Steps Towards Understanding the Net Generation:

• Are you more comfortable composing documents online than longhand? Yes, definitely.
• Have you turned your “remembering” (phone numbers, meetings, and so on) over to a technology device? This is dependent on the devices I’ve been able to afford - I have had a cell phone for a long time, so I don’t remember numbers. But I still am very attached to my planner. I’m sure once I make the financial commitment to a smart phone and it’s plan, I’ll begin transitioning to a digital personal management system.
• Do you go to meetings with your laptop or PDA? I have not been working, so I’ve really been limited as to what I can spend on technology; however, I’m not on the go all the time, so I don’t have a need that is disproportionate to my resources. My home computer has really been sufficient, though I’m saving up for my next piece!
• Are you constantly connected? Is the Internet always on whether you are at home or work? Is your cell phone always with you? Yes and yes - we have one computer, and now that my girls are wanting screen time on a regular basis, it’s four to one machine. It’s starting to get cramped! We often have to schedule our computer time to make sure we all get our tasks done in a day.
• How many different activities can you effectively engage in at one time? I don’t know how effective I am, but I usually have a lot going on at any given moment.
• Do you play video or computer games? I play more video games than computer. My family loves social games - and it's continued over the years, but now we play more Guitar Hero and less Scattergories.

What I learned was that while, based on my age, I’m a Gen Xer, I definitely act in many ways as a member of the Net Generation. Since I do relate in many ways to the Net Gen, I was not surprised to read that their thought processes and learning preferences could be described with words like “social,” “rapid pace,” “image-rich,” and “experiential.” I was a bit surprised to see that studies have found them to crave structure. The online world can seem borderless and unregulated, and I suppose some of us assume that these digital natives have those characteristics as well. However, the studies quoted in this paper show us just the opposite about this Net Generation - while the online world may be without limit, the children of this digital age seem to inherently understand that they need “parameters, rules, priorities, and procedures.”

In fact, this article also tells us that the Net Gen actually takes for granted the technology itself. They speak in terms of action - what the technology can help them accomplish. As a teacher, I am very excited about guiding and learning from this generation - they are connectors, problem solvers, leaders. The funny thing is, technology can be a great mediator, or a great divide. These students want to connect with us, they want our direction, and we have the same ultimate goal of learning and progress. That sounds like a win-win situation to me!

So... today my X is showing. I start getting a little puffy about my technical abilities, and then a project like this week's - creating a podcast - reminds me how much I don’t understand. This week I have been working - and working, and working - to get my podcast created, published, and embedded here in Blogger.com. For some reason, I just can’t get it to come up. It’s pretty neat! I have a Mac, and used the GarageBand ’09 application to create my podcast. I uploaded this to Podbean.com for hosting and publishing with an account that is set for public viewing, so you may access the podcast at

http://juliesharp.podbean.com/mf/web/9zk9uy/HowtoMakeaFlowerClipPodcast.m4a

Happy 4th!

Julie