My Life & Technology

    Over the past twenty years, technology has expanded exponentially in our day-to-day lives, so much so that our society cannot run properly without it. I've been alive for twenty-one years and I have seen so much innovation in the tech sphere in that time. My earliest memory of tech was back in 2006 when for my fifth birthday, I received a GameBoy Advance. About a year later, I was in Kindergarten and I used a computer for the first time in the schools computer lab. At the time, the computers ran to be what I believe was Windows XP, an operating system from 2001. 

    Nowadays, I primarily use my laptop which uses the far more advance Windows 11, and my iPhone 12 which runs iOS 15. My 2007-08 self could not even imagine the kind of tech I would eventually be using in the not-so distant future. This has lead me to wonder what technologies our kids will experience as they grow up. Will tech continue to grow? Or will it begin to stagnate further? Only time will tell.

iPhone 13 Pro (2021) compared to the iPhone 2G (2007)

    In the meantime, we can only think about what we have in the present, and that includes what our students currently, and will soon use as they get older. Because of how common smartphones have become, I believe it to be important to establish some rules of responsibility so us and our kids do not become too reliant on them, or unable to have the knowledge of how to use it to enhance your learning. 

    The big rule for technology that I have is something that I personally still struggle with (though I am getting much better at managing it), and that is to limit social media use and instead focus on the education and learning aspect that the tech offers us. Instead of outright turning our backs on smartphone and other tech use in the classroom, I believe that we should instead teach kids early and often how to responsibly and appropriately use technology, not just in the classroom, but in other real world settings too.