As I was reading The App Generation, I was
thinking about the apps that I have come to rely on. I cannot make a decision
about what I am going to wear each day without consulting my weather app. I
remember growing up and hearing the ding of the weekly forecast on the local
news channel and watching my parents freeze and gaze over the weather ahead.
They had to wait until that segment of the news, but I now have these details instantly
at the palm of my hand. My own experiences and reflections with apps helped me understand
The App Generation. We strive to learn as much as we can about our
students – who they were in the grade before, who their siblings are, how they
learn, what their needs are, but now I understand who they are in our
technology driven world. In class, we identified positives and negatives about
how identity, intimacy, and imagination have changed as apps have enabled or in
some cases started to direct our lives. By understanding how risk-taking, creativity,
attention, users of information, a need for affirmation, communication, etc.
taps into our students we can design lessons that incorporate S.S.C.C.S. to help
overcome weaknesses or highlight strengths of the app generation.
I'm in the same boat as you with my reliance on apps. It's hard to imagine a world without apps these days, and the apps only keep improving with each software update! So, we have to step back and think, if we're this dependent on apps, our students certainly are. I think about my own childhood in an era pre-apps. While we could certainly spend hours playing Nintendo 64, we also enjoyed our fair share of outside play, too. The app generation doesn't seem to have that same interest. To effectively teach our students, we must understand their interests and needs. We must teach them the benefits and downfalls of the abundance of apps they have available.
ReplyDeleteI, too, thought about apps I relied on when reflecting on the book. I focused a lot on Waze as a daily app I use but I didn’t even consider my use of the weather app. While I watch the news in the morning while I get ready for work I find that I frequently “can’t wait for the weather to cycle through” and check my app instead. Furthermore, as I think about my use of this app heading into the winter months I know that I check the app multiple times a day to look for snow forecasts. While I like to think that I’m just excited to potentially get a day off, if I’m truly honest, I think I waste a good bit of time trying to determine the likelihood of potential snow. Not only do I waste time (which is valuable enough) I waste energy getting excited (and in the case of last year) being very disappointed. Some of the fun I remember from growing up was waking up to snow. Now, as an adult, I can justify the need to know about snow for many practical reason but I think it’s important to find and create a boundary so that time and energy is not wasted. I agree with Jared that we need to teach and guide our students to use apps in a responsible and meaningful way so they are aware of the benefits and negatives that come with app usage and availability of information.
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