Where does technology fit?

I was born in the late 80s. Computers were not new, but they were a rare commodity in the home. They were a thing brought into classrooms by reformers of the 90s that wanted to give kids a "chance". It was never clear what they expected the technology to produce in the upcoming population. I built my first computer when I was 6, with help from a friend of my mom. I learned DOS, I learned Windows95, I played various games and practiced typing, counting and exploring the world with an encyclopedia program that we found in a thrift store.

I grew up with land lines, and matured into having a cellphone when I was in college the first time. I remember pagers and missed social events and answering machines. I mastered typing by trying to make friends online, who at the time mostly consisted of people that are my current age, who insisted that I punctuate every sentence, every exclamation and emotes weren't acceptable communication.

Textese wasn't a thing yet.

And then, a few years later, it was.

So knowing my past, where does that put technology in my classroom? Does it even belong there?

I think technology is a tool that is necessary to further my personal goals in the classroom. Textbooks are aging, even newly written ones are found to be lacking "the other side". Traditional classrooms only allow for hands on experimentation or badly written recountings of what happened when the experiment was performed by another person.

Technology gives us a lens through which we can explore the world outside of what is "safe" for younger students to participate in. Experiments, cultural exploration, visual expressions of math concepts are all new-wave educational possibilities that can be brought into the classroom with technology. Smartboards allow the student to interact and self-teach at the same time that they teach the class, which has been shown to be the quickest way to not only test but create mastery. iPads allow web searches for quick information gathering which can lead into synthesis discussions, or quick assessment that causes significantly less stress than a standard paper quiz.

The quandary lies with non-educational use of technology during times that there should be engagement. Cellphones and even provided class technology can suffice to distract students enough that they can miss crucial concepts discussed, and social media is a new battlefield of bullying and social stigmas.

The ways to mitigate this is ground work on when technology is acceptable to use in the classroom, what should be searched and how to use technology effectively. Teaching someone to use something is only the first part of the educational process, because nuances should be discussed. Privacy, social issues and defensive use of technology are all topics that need to be addressed with the current generation of "plugged in" individuals.