Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Thing #15

I LOVED the video in this "thing". So true, so real, so with it! As the parent of a 16 year old I am amazed by the amount of time and the expertise he has on the computer. This year, the 16 year old did the dreaded sophmore research project. He spent countless hours writing information on index cards. I said, "I remember doing the same thing when I was in high school." He said, "That just goes to show we should have stopped using index cards a LONG time ago!" I guess he was saying that the old fashioned way of doing things just doesn't make sense. Here he was all over the computer with countless ways to find research on his topic, stopping to write down information on an index card. He said, "Why am I having to write this fact down when I have it at my fingertips with the click of this mouse?"
I read a few articles about "Library 2.0" I see that the future of our libraries is all about keeping current with up-to-the-minute changes in computer technology. I also think there has to be a balance between new and old. In one of the articles "Away from Icebergs", the writer suggests one day soon libraries might not need books because they will be available on the web. While I know that won't happen any time soon, I just can't think about it. One of the things I love about libraries is the "community of books". I love checking out a well-loved and well-used book that has been enjoyed by so many others. Libraries have always been about community building. I know that will always continue no matter how computer savvy we become.

3 comments:

VWB said...

let's hope that the 2.0 community we have built in SBISD thru the likes of adventures such as 23 things will help us help others in our circle of influence to "move" onto new ways of doing things! in other words, maybe we can gently help them think outside their traditional box and offer kids a choice in completing a task in a little different way...there will always be some studnets who can be quite successful with the notecard method, but there will be others who will find other ways as well!

Jodi Pendarvis said...

Well said, VWB. I'd like to add that we should see our younger generation as a resource. Most of them are naturally evolving as users of 2.0. They learn new technologies just as a matter of life with no formal training. Rather than think of ourselves as strictly teachers to their being strictly students, we should see ourselves as a community whose members have different strengths. We can learn so much from our young techies.

Thanks, Judy, for sharing that story about your son. It's a perfect example.

Grendel said...

It bothers me, too, to see students who are so technology literate having to stop to write on a notecard. I attended a workshop at a librarians' conference about getting our high schoolers ready for college, and I asked the professor if her colleagues at the university used the notecard method. She said there were always those old- fashioned ones who distrusted computers, and so she would recommend that our students know the old-fashioned approach. It appears that many of us need to get outside our boxes!