Left Behind

I must say that this course has really made me feel the extent to which I am behind the times. With so many new forms of communicating and participating becoming available, I find that I am left behind--I am barely scraping by with a cell phone (an old one at that which doesn't even take pictures or play music) and email. This is my first blog experience and I find myself wondering if I would have ever had a blog otherwise. Although given this experience, I am seriously considering having a classroom blog for next year for my students to contribute to. I guess I am really becoming awakened to all the new literacy opportunities available and learning how much they are impacting our students. I am amazed at the level of knowledge elementary kids have about the Internet, IMing, MySpace, etc., so I can only imagine what middle and high schoolers are doing. If you have read my Network Literacy blog you know that I don't venture far from the most basic uses of technology. I don't participate in text messaging all that often (in fact I'm always surprised when I receive a text message on my phone), I barely IM one person and not that often (my best friend who I wouldn't talk to otherwise), I am not a gamer (with no desire to be one either), I don't participate on MySpace (are you kidding? I don't want students looking at my page), etc. I think a lot of the reasons I don't do these things have to do with the fact that I have NO time (work + school). I suppose there are other people with the same constraints who do find the time, it's just not a priority for me right now. I will say, however, that I am going to be more considerate of these new forms of literacy in the classroom, even if they aren't a personal priority, for the sake of my students.