Revolution in the Classroom and in Social Lives



There are only a few things in life that are guarenteed: death, taxes, and change. Whether you like it or not, change will happen, and often does faster than we may expect. I remember when I had my first walkman and was on a plane, I was asked by the stewardess what it was. She was fascinated by it and how I was able to listen to a tape like that. Nowadays, if you were to where those headphones and have a large tape deck attached to your hip, you would attract unwanted attention. But if you had those simple earpieces attached by a small wire to your latest colored ipod nano, nobody would think twice about what you’re doing. The same goes with how far we have advanced with the size and speed of computers. When they first appeared generations ago, they filled up entire rooms and would process a simple calculation in only 2 hours. WOW!! Now we have a world at our fingertips that could fit on our laps or in the corner of a desk. The idea of change in inevitable. It will happen!!
Now with consideration to the video, “Revolution in the Classroom and in Social Lives”, change is bound to happen not only in our everyday lives, but also in the classroom and school environment. If we as teachers fail to recognize this change and adapt to how our students are walking through their lives, we will fail to understand where they’re coming from and fail them as educators. Now let’s consider what it is that we are teaching them. Do we really have the best tools to teach them what is important? Don’t you believe it would be valuable to teach them something new or the latest in technology, rather than what was important back when we were students ourselves? I strongly believe that if we fail to keep a step ahead of our students, our information that we are to teach our students will quickly become less and less important to them. Their interest will not be in learning what they can from a out-dated instructor, but will come from their own resources. They will feel as if they can get more important information from the internet or by “doing”. Studies have shown that even adults learn best by “doing” and not just listening and learning. We need to “play” as we did when we were in kindergarten. Young children learn so much about life when they begin, start, attempt, fail, just play and do. As adults we still possess this need to play and attempt. Our students are no exception to this rule, especially in todays day and age. They learn best by doing or playing.