Growing Up Online

The documentary was an hour long but I think that it was put together very well. Frontline covered the effects the internet and technology on today's teenagers. Teenagers are using the internet and technology EVERYWHERE! They use it in groups, alone, at school, at home, and where ever they have reception on their cell phone. Teachers and parents are struggling to keep up with it. The internet is a teenagers place for self expression outside the reach of parents where no one is in charge and it is a continuation of real life. Today more than ever, kids are very comfortable with being public. They want to use the internet as a venue to display their identity in a very dramatic way. Without being face to face with someone else it give teens both the chance to be completely different than they really are and also a way for them to truly be themselves. Autumn Edows (Jessica) was on the computer all day long constantly refreshing and replying, she said "didn't even feel like myself, but I liked not feeling like myself"

The internet is largely fueled by the desire for media entertainment. Students are struggling now more than ever while in traditional classrooms. Students want the impulse fast answers that technology has offered to them. Teachers need to cut through the media and capture their attention. Frontline interviewed a senior teacher who is trying to hang onto the traditional, non technological, classroom.  I could tell she was really starting to burn out. She felt the school arena is sooo different than when she began. I will need to keep up with the technology or else I a. will be replaced by it or b. will become burned out from fighting the technological growth. I do not want to become burned out from something that I have a passion for and enjoy.

Mrs. Skinner, mother of 3 tech savvy teenagers, placed the house's only computer right in the kitchen so it could be monitored closer. That is all fine and dandy but what frontline failed to address was the growing trend of 1:1 initiatives like Stevens Point's 9th graders are getting. If our system is moving toward trying to have a computer for every student, there will be no amount of monitoring in the world which could keep them out of trouble. We need to initiate more service programs that will help students learn how to use the technology responsibly as they age. When it comes to scary mishaps on the internet, are the kids victims or actually participants?

Computers and the Internet are not the primary cause of many of the problems, there are deeper issues.
This is life, how will we learn to live with it? We need to modify the players and the game.

In my classroom I want to keep up with the times and technology. In the long run it will take less energy for me to continually keep learning the new information than it will be for me to struggle with not knowing it. If I can stay up to date, I will be able to prepare my students for their future and effectively guide them to become more responsible while using technology.