Technology: To Nook or Not to Nook

Technology has always been an avid part of my life. As with many young children my background in technology is rooted in video games. In my elementary to middle school years I was often found in my basement playing Nintendo, in high school I graduated to The Sims, and in college I made the transition to entertain myself through watching YouTube videos. Growing up with two older sisters using the internet was similar to entering a battlefield. You couldn’t be on the computer for too long in case someone important was calling, and if you picked up the phone in the middle of an important AOL chat session, boy were you in trouble.

Upon entering college my knowledge of technology expanded. I learned how to navigate and implement Fairfield University’s library database to support my papers and presentations. Having this as a resource gave me a sense of power. I no longer had to search in piles of books for support, I merely had to type a few words into a search box.

Although technology has had a positive impact on my life there are still elements of technology that I cannot adjust to. This can all be summed up in two words: The Nook. I received The Nook, an electronic book database where you can purchase and store all of your books, as a Christmas gift this past December and it is still sitting in its packaging on my desk. Every time I think of opening it I feel as though I am betraying the paperback novels that have always been so good and loyal to me. Eventually I know I will give in but for now I still can’t part with the sensory elements of reading a paperback novel; the crease in the spine when it has been read and re-read, the touch of the pages, and most of all, the smell. These are all things that the Nook, no matter how handy, will never achieve.

Technology is a growing part of students’ lives both in and out of the classroom, from this course I hope to gain better knowledge of technology and how to incorporate it in my own classroom. The article Four Takes on Technology states the positive effects of technology, “Using digitized documents in the classroom encourages critical thinking and promotes information literacy skills. A textbook might allude to multiple interpretations of an event, but a typical document-based inquiry assignment engages the student in a more proactive way.” Adding technology in the classroom allows a student to connect with a material in a more hands-on way.  It lets them feel included in the lesson, leading them to feel empowered in what they learn and how they learn it. As stated in the video Learning to Change-Changing to Learn, “It’s the death of education, but the dawn of learning.”