This past Friday, I participated in the San Jose State University 2nd Annual Day of Service 2008. I participated mainly because it is recommended to participate in the Day of Service for my Civic Engagement paper in my Political Science 103 class. My professor gave the students in the class who participated and I a choice to do voter registration, leaflet some neighborhoods, or go help out Horace Mann Elementary. I chose to go to Horace Mann Elementary and it was an eye-opening experience and very fun.
I chose to help out a classroom and it ended up being a second grade English class. I was assigned to help the teacher with various tasks and to help the kids work on research projects. The teacher split the class into 3 groups and I had a group of four girls and they were assigned Abraham Lincoln. We were given children's books about Abraham Lincoln and any information that the kids couldn't find in the books would have to be researched on the Internet.
Wait a minute, second graders know how to research on the Internet?
When I was in second grade, our school was equipped with crappy Mac II computers with terribly slow Netscape. Clearly, there is a generational gap that I have encountered here.
I did not get to see first-hand how the kids research on the Internet because there wasn't enough time for the day I was there, but they did have iMac and iBooks in the classroom.
I thought to myself, how media savvy are these kids compared to me right now or when I was a kid? Where will they be when they become my age technologically wise?
I just thought it was very interesting to see a school prepare their students for the future at such an early age. Now all I have to do is learn as much as I can right now before their technological skills kick my ass when they become up and coming interns and I'm the 30 year old fart that doesn't know anything.
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Wow, second-graders doing research on the internet. That's what I call creeping techno-pressure! Now you know how I feel sometimes.
One of my summer projects (no kidding!) is to learn how to use my cell phone as a "mobile device." Yup, we're talking texting...something all my students seem to have picked up years ago.
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