Have you ever experienced the heart-pounding, world-stops-spinning, mouth-goes-dry-feeling when you lose your cell phone? A tingling panic spreads to your finger tips. You want to yell at everyone around you, "STOP...help me look! The world must stop spinning until I find my phone!"
Then you think, why are all of these people still smiling and talking?
Don't they realize I have lost everything?!?
Ok, deep breath...I will call myself.
Wait, I can't call because I don't have a phone! THINK, where could it be?
Maybe I should text my team to see if they have seen it! ...Oh, right, no phone.
Calm down. Breathe. Let's check the calendar to see what is happening next and then I will know how long I have left to find my phone. Where is my calendar, oh...on my phone.
At this point you feel like giving up on the world and you decide to sit down. You feel something. Now, reach into your pocket and BAM...there is your phone. In the ONE pocket you didn't check. I mean seriously? You never use your left front pocket! Deep breath...all is right with the world.
This may or may not be something that has happened to me on more than a few (dozen) occasions.
The Christie Staff sat in meetings today learning about how our school is advancing in technology. I was surrounded by some people, like me, that embrace all aspects of technology and love learning the latest trends. Also in the room were those "old souls" that find technology to be annoying or frightening. You could see the discomfort as they squirmed in their seats when asked to tweet their thoughts about our new learning commons.
This got me thinking...at what point does the divide begin? Are there any aspects of "technology" that I myself do not embrace?
I came to the conclusion that while I would rather type notes than hand write them, and while I would rather text than call...when it comes to READING I prefer books in print to ebooks. I have a Nook that I enjoy. I read blogs and research online throughout every day. However, at night when I lay down in bed there is something about picking up a print copy, opening to the page that you have bookmarked, and getting lost in a new world. I find myself turning the pages quickly to see what happens next and every once in a while, closing the book slightly to see how much progress I have made.
When I read a book in print I get lost for a lot longer than I do when reading on the Nook. I find books in print harder to put down. I often look up at the clock to find my goal bed time has passed long ago. How many times have I fallen asleep reading and woken up later with my book on my chest, still dreaming of the story I fell asleep reading? It's a very different story when I fall asleep reading my Nook...that actually can be quite painful!
I guess what I am trying to say is that while I embrace technology...I find myself holding on to my paperback tattered copy of Charlotte's Web and hoping that someday when my daughter grows old enough to read that classic story...that she will come running with her finger marking the end of a chapter exclaiming, "Mama, look how much I read tonight!"
You know what I am talking about. That old book. The one that smells good. The one you can open up and before you finish the first page you are taken back to a childhood story that feels more like an actual memory of times gone by than a story.
So, remember that time I came in your room and almost cried because you were READING ALOUD to the kids? I so worry that in the frenzy for data and remediation tools, computer programs that teach skills are supplanting giving kids the time to fall in love with a book. I fear that we are making kids hate reading if they think that reading is only about answering comprehension questions after a short computerized passage. And don't even get me started on how much money is being funneled to programs like iStation - money that (IMHO) would be much better spent on books.
ReplyDeleteTeachers like you who truly value the power of a story and convey their own love for reading give me hope that kids will find that book that makes them fall in love with reading. Because no computer program will do that for a kid.