Blog #4

We have spent four weeks practicing how to integrate technology into the classroom. The importance of learning these skills is a given, but is the integration itself at all levels of education? How Young Is Too Young (the reading for week 4) addresses the issue of age limits—what do you think? Is there such a thing as being "too young" for technology? Does technology really interfere with young child socialization?

Today kids use technology from the time they are toddlers and their parents hand them their cell phone to play on, even though they don't quite know how to use the technology, kids are becoming more and more comfortable with using technology at younger and younger ages. I do not think that there is such a thing as being "too young", especially in our technology based world. The sooner kids start to use technology, the more comfortable they will be with it when they need to use it in the classroom eliminating time that teachers would otherwise have to spend teaching their students how to use the technology.


I do think, though, that technology interferes with socialization. It is so important that children learn how to interact with their peers at a young age so that they can carry this skill with them through out their life. If students start to rely computers too much they may not develop the skills necessary to interact with their classmates. In our technology based world communication has become more and more reliant on technology while face to face contact has gone by the way side. In a time when texting, e-mailing, and Facebooking are kids major forms of communication it's no wonder that face to face interactions have become so "out dated", we have become so comfortable behind a screen that talking to new people in person has become intimidating. This is evident by the fact that if you walk around campus, many of the students are on their phones texting or checking Facebook and not interacting with their piers or classmates. In my opinion, technology, as a communication tool, has become too heavily relied upon.