"It is a pleasure to be able to quote lines to fit any occasion..." ~Abraham Lincoln
I'm sure that if Abe were around today, he would say something profound about technology. Bear with me as I manage without him.
This week in Math 6 we began our Stock Market Game (SMG) project by logging into the simulation and taking a look at the website. There is some information that the groups need to record (their login and password, etc), and normally they write this on the back of a notebook or on the back of a classmate's hand. Either way, by the second week of the simulation they lose the information. Technology to the rescue. This year, the kids - these 6th graders - realized that they could start up a Google Doc, share it with their team, and use it as a dumping ground for such data. Wow! Not a single student (nor the teacher) thought of this last year. But this year it was a "Duh, Zee. Hello. OBvioussss" moment. As much as liked my new idea of them using a tiny and cute SMG notebook, I have to admit the Google Doc method is superior.
This simple event is the proof to me that the younger the kids, the more their baseline thinking has changed. They don't have to think of how to incorporate technology. They just use it.
The pencil replaced the goose quill and ink. The goose quill and ink replaced....something. The computer has not replaced the pencil, but the writing is on the...smartboard?
So as I marveled at how much things have changed I realized that to them nothing has changed - it just is.
Wow - those 6th graders are awesome. It must have been the great Google Docs training they received in 4th and 5th grade - right, Tim? Anyway, that's a great story to share and that "baseline" will keep changing as the kids get older and older.
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