Unit 2 Portfolio (final)

Technology is a rapidly changing and ever growing beneficiary that we are in contact with every day of our lives. However, it was not always like this. It is just within the past twenty years that our society has made it so that there is technology in the hand of nearly each and every single person. With this, there is a constant debate of whether or not technology is hindering children or helping them. This is a space to educate all of the people that are not sure of the effects of technology on our youth because it is such a prominent issue. Using myself, a twenty year old college student as an example, I go to class; I open my laptop to take notes.  I walk into a lecture and my attendance is online. I walk home from class, and my phone is in my hand catching up on what I’ve missed during class. I come home, and I check my computer for all of my assignments. It is hard to imagine my life, as a millennial, without technology strung along with it but think about how generation Z feels about technology with even more access earlier on than I even had.  Ultimately, the children who are immersed in different types of technologies in their younger years may really be the ones who become successful in the workplace.

Link to where photo is taken from: https://edwardsco.com/how-to-align-communications-strategy-with-gen-z/

Firstly, Generation Z is the children that are in grade school right now (younger than 20). More specifically with focus on the kids that are aged old enough to be in school and experience technology in the classroom. These kids have become, in some people’s minds, even more attached to technology than the millennials- who are at the college level reaching up to their mid-thirties. Many people are beginning to question if this aforementioned  technology is becoming a hindrance and doing more negative than positive for these kids growing up, because there are concerns about the possible link with the rise of technology and a weakening of social skills. Adolescents are already attached to technology in their day to day life just doing basic activities such as texting, using social media and classroom needs. But the real question is: how is this affecting their performance in the classroom? School districts are turning over a new leaf and implementing technology into their daily lesson plans every single day. This includes giving students laptops or iPad’s to do their work on, moving over to online gradebooks, adding projectors to all of the classrooms and assigning more creative assignments such as video projects. With technology becoming such an appendage in children’s lives, it begs an important question. Does it hinder their normal day to day activity if a device is removed? Technology is rapidly becoming a more integral part of life, and without it children are going to enter the real world and lacking crucial abilities to do basic tasks that may be asked of them because they have not been familiarized with new forms of technology. It is safe to say at this point that we have become a society where what we do behind a screen is more important than face to face interaction. That being said, since this is the way society is beginning to turn, it is essential that we prepare children for what their futures hold when they have a job that requires rapid adjustment to our technically advanced and ever changing society.

Secondly, technology is rapidly advancing. There are advancements every day, and changes and updates are made by the hour and new ideas are conceived by the minute. Our growth in the technological world has been documented by the article, From Pencils to Pixels, written by a University of Illinois Professor. It is stated, “We don’t have typewriters in our offices anymore, or pencil sharpeners, or even printers with resolutions less than 300 dpi. We scour MacUser and PC World for the next software upgrade, cheaper RAM, faster chips, and the latest in connectivity,” (Baron 1- http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/pencils.htm). This reinforces how fast this world is continuously changing and doing it quick. In other words, if children are sheltered from the fast changes and new ways of technology, they will be at a complete disadvantage to those who have years of exposure to it. Could you imagine walking into you class and being the only one with a computer that is twenty years old? It is a rare case when this happens because the way that technology is made these days, devices rarely last that long. This idea emphasizes the importance that it is a necessity to be able to change and adapt quickly to what is being released in the technological world so that you can keep up in the workplace when your boss decides he wants to update his office. There won’t be time for employees to take to re learn new tools and programs. It has become expected to pick up rapidly and continue whatever project you were working on prior to the changes that were made. If an employee is unable to do this an employer could potentially see less value in that person.

Furthermore, having technology in the classroom starting at a young age supports the idea that technology needs to be implemented early in the daily lives of children to better their chances of success in the business world. It is essential that children grasp on to these new ways as soon as possible. Stephanie Gauthia created a video illustrating the ways in which her elementary school aged students interact with technology daily. Also, being a blogger as well, she wrote a blog post to support this video. In this blog post she expresses, “This technology allows students to create, collaborate, and communicate in different ways,” (Gauthia 1- http://www.gpb.org/blogs/education-matters/2018/02/05/writing-the-digital-age). Gauthia states that she feels that technology is able to teach these skills to her students, which is why she swears by having a learning environment filled with all different types of technology to assure that her students get the most out of their experience in the classroom.

 (taken from screenshot of Stephanie Gauthia’s video)

Attached is the link to the video that Stephanie Gauthia created -https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=YBswhf0dxbo

 Stephanie Gauthia makes her classroom space an ‘Innovation Lab” The video that the seasoned blogger and teacher puts together emphasizes the words “create,” “design,” “explore,” “imagine,” “explain,” and “investigate”. The final word that was left to make an impact was the word “write.” All of these words are the outcome of the extraordinary ways in which technology aides teaching in the classroom is able to help her teach students, as well as students across the world. In a educational system that is constantly growing, innovating, and changing, this increase in technology playing a role in a student's learning experience mirrors how a company functions in the real world, and also allows the students to begin learning how to operate in a way that will arguable give them the best preparation for entering the professional world outside of school.

            Moreover, a common issue people have with the younger generations is how attached they are to their cell phones. Wherever you look adults, teens, and now children are always quickly typing away on their cell phones shooting out text messages by the second. This leads to thoughts of what kind of writing and rhetoric these text messages are teaching kids. Amanda Lenhart, Sousan Arafeh, Aaron Smith, and Alexandra Macgill created an article focusing on the habits of teens and writing. They found that, “93% of teens say they write for pleasure” (Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith, Macgill- http://www.pewinternet.org/2008/04/24/writing-technology-and-teens/).  These texts fall under the type of writing students do for pleasure by using the text talk language. Text talk is the type of language that people use when they are sending a text message. It consists of abbreviations, shortened words, paraphrasing to express themselves. For example, ‘u’ can be substituted for ‘you’ and ‘because’ can be shortened to ‘bc.’  Additionally, ‘lol’ is known as ‘laugh out loud’ and ‘ttyl’ can be derived from ‘talk to you later.’ These are just a few ways that the English language can be transcribed to this new type of language. From a very young age, kids are taught to read and to write and to use proper grammar in their respective languages.  A common argument is that this type of text talk is destroying all of what these children are learning in school. John McWhorter, conducts a ted talk where he addresses this concern and shows how text talk is actually strengthens the user rather than ruins previously groomed skills.

Photo taken from to Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

McWhorter explains during his fourteen minute talk how, “when we speak casually in an unmonitored way in we talk in packets of maybe seven to ten words… speech is much looser much more telegraphic much more telegraphic much more telegraphic… language is speech” (McWhorter- https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare). He compares it to how when we give speeches you write in a way similar to how you talk to engage your audience better and be more relatable. Additionally, John McWhorter makes a great point explaining texting as an, “expansion of linguistic repertoire” (McWhorter- https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare). Rather than ruining already acquired skills, texting builds upon your established skills and repertoire of syntax and diction. Another fascinating point that he made was how people who have learned this new ‘language’ can be seen as comparable to being bilingual.

This is a screenshot taken from the article by Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith and Macgill (http://www.pewinternet.org/2008/04/24/writing-technology-and-teens/). As demonstrated above, text messaging is, in fact, form of writing. It is a more creative form of writing in this alternate language that has developed over the years. Just because texting is not formal does not separate it from the writing category.

Lastly, people are arguing that worsening social skills and shortened attention spans are negatives associated with constant technology use. When technology is used in such an excessive manor that it begins to break down natural human skills such as face to face interaction, as well as interpersonal skills, it can be problematic. There is the possibility that when Generation Z takes the real world they are going to be facing some real problems. While reading an article about the effect of technology on social skills there was a very interesting point that stood out. Katherine Bindley interviewed Garry Smal, a neurologist. He told her that, ‘“It’s not too late. You can teach people empathy skills. You can teach them to look each other in the eye,”’ (Bindley - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/children-texting-technology-social-skills_n_1137570.html). This is a critical assertion, because it proves that technology has not ruined these skills in children. It can be reasonably inferred that just seeing the daily struggles of our parents using technology that learning how to use the newest devices can be challenging. Therefore, it is easier to teach social skills during early skills in life, rather than teaching technology skills later in life. This is why it is imperative that technology be implemented at such an early age. Much like learning a language, it is best taught early on. This begs the question of  the truth about the lack of social skills and whether they are actually affected or not. Or are the students not exposed to this way of life the real ones who are losing? If you take a child who has never seen technology, used it or practiced with it, they may just be the ones who are at the real disadvantage.

Ultimately, those who are so glued to technology and use it daily are the ones with the advantage. The little boy who pulls his phone out as soon as the bell rings could just be the one that is going to be most prepared for the workforce. Today's business are all about getting ahead and having the newest and best thing to propel their company further. Children who are surrounded by iPads and laptops and the latest phones are the ones that are going to be prepared for the changes that will come in their company one day. They grew up figuring out the latest technology releases and adjusting to new iPhone updates. Older generations have yet to learn how to adjust and take lots of time to get comfortable with updated technology. The new generations of workers are already going to be ahead by being equipped with these faster technological learning skills. Children who have been learning and working with these skills earlier in life will be the most desirable employees when they grow up because they demonstrate adaptability, technological competence, and intelligence. Many job positions these days are strictly behind a computer and those people will not have to worry about having the strong formal people skills that other positions need. Some people just are not comfortable with having meetings all day and being the face of a company and increasingly in today’s job market, that is okay. It is a negative thing that some kids are growing up lacking social skills, but in the end they will be okay. Companies have shown how much they value a technically strong candidate for a job position. For those who were reading this seeking information and guidance on the effects of technology in our youth, it has clearly been illustrated that our children are going to be okay when they grow up and enter the real world. It is essential that we realize this and come to accept it sooner than later so that we can give Generation Z and all the future generations the best possible skills to succeed. In the end there will always be a technology battle, but it is clear that those who prepare themselves best will have the tools to win the battle.