The 21st century pacifier- the cell phone
I recently was in Stop and Shop buying our weekly groceries when I heard the unmistakable cry of an upset toddler. I turned to see the baby’s mother immediately hand the child her cell phone which instantly appeased the boy. As I passed by her cart I hear the all too familiar sound of birds flying through the air on their way to find pigs. This isn’t the first time I have witnessed a similar practice; I have seen kids on phones in church, in cars, and in libraries. It has become the norm- a new fact of life in a technology culture. I also don’t believe we will have much success in changing the behavior. I think our energies should be focused on developing educational content for the phone (and all other mobile devices) that properly challenge young minds in appropriate content. There has to be a new symmetry between the thrill of killing pigs with developing ELA and math skills. The next wave of educational content will be delivered via apps and online content and we must work toward this inevitability. Our generation must go through a “letting go” in which we suspend our traditional notion of school and education. Classroom and teaching pedagogy must change to engage a new generation of learners. The ultimate irony is we (adults) have created and encouraged a media saturated culture for youngsters yet we resist the notion of embracing those teaching practices. Happily Mineola Middle School is continuing to demonstrate the ability to fuse new technologies and traditional content to create an educational environment that embraces personalized instructional technology.