New technology = distractions

Classrooms have certainly changed since I went to high school and even since I student taught.

I graduated in 1980. The school building housed not one computer. We learned to type on IBM Selectric typewriters. The roar of those motors and the chatter of the keys was audible well away from that classroom. We watched movies on reels.

I was ahead of my time. During study halls, I hid a tape recorder in a large notebook and ran an earpiece from it up my coat sleeve into my ear. The sound quality was horrible, but it was music!



I student taught at my alma mater in 1993, the final step before earning my second bachelor's degree. The typewriters had been replaced by computers. The first time I walked past the typing classroom, now the keyboarding room, I was shocked how quiet it was. Instead of that roar, only a light clicking sound came out of a classroom full of computers. I showed movies on a VCR. I once confiscated a Walkman. We'd seen cell phones on "Hart to Hart", but no one I knew had one.

Students passing notes were the main classroom distractions at both times.

This morning, my class went to an online German teaching site, Hennings' Haus. Typewriters were loud, but I never had found their sound to be annoying. One of the educational games on this web site featured a man searching for various destinations. His shoes squeaked on every step he took. Fingernails on the chalkboard, especially after 4 hours of it.

I circled the room continually looking for students who had sneaked over to YouTube. I wrote up half of one class for "YouTubing" and I probably missed more of them.

Friday I confiscated my first cell phone. I nearly confiscated a BlackBerry today.

All these toys distract both the students and the teacher.

Technology definitely has its downsides, but I still wouldn't want to be without it.