Who Are You?
By Chris Sefcheck Thomas Jefferson High School Principal est Jefferson Hills WEST JEFFERSON HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS— THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
W hen did it all begin? It used to be that the library had all the answers; we simply referenced the card catalog and quickly ran to the shelves where we found the book( s) we needed to help us. Eventually, we were able to sort through the microfiche projector to quickly( in relative terms) read old newspaper articles or periodicals.
It seemed as though this whole technology birth exponentially changed everything right before us, leaving some far behind, others shuffling to keep up, and others leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. Why is this so important? Hopefully I can answer that in the confines of this little page.
I stopped near the escalators at South Hills Village recently because something caught my eye. Everyone I seemed to pass wasn’ t watching where they going, they had their faces planted in a device; whether it be a tablet or phone, they were definitely occupied. I made it a point to sit and watch 100 people go up / down the escalators to get an accurate picture of how many people were buried in devices. I even overheard some of the conversations between seemingly happy couples together. Topics ranged from“ Look and see if you can find any coupons online for …” or“ Check and see if it is cheaper at Macy’ s than JC Penney’ s.” I’ ll share the percentage of passersby towards the end of this article, so see if you can guess what it is yourself first.
Why am I even talking about this? What in the heck does this have to do with education? Let me tell you, it has everything to do with education. I see the same things in the
54 West Jefferson Hills hallways between passing periods. Sure, the conversations are different but the purpose is the same. Everyone is engaging themselves at all times. There is no“ powering down.” In the classroom, what’ s the difference between scurrying through an index page of a textbook or asking Siri to answer what the dates of the Battle of Gettysburg were? The safe bet is on Siri … Education is evolving; every student of every age has a nearly infinite bank of resources in their hands at all times. The hardest part for them is determining which is accurate or which online jabber from a“ non-trusted” source is. We owe it to our students, parents, and faculty to teach everyone about Primary Sources; websites we can trust to be accurate. We also need to teach problem solving and higher-order critical thinking skills, something everyone needs too!
The answer is 73. Yep, 73 % of the 100 people I observed were deeply entrenched in their devices, many of them for unknown reasons. An article I read in the“ Business Insider” leads me to believe that many were doing research or playing on social media. By research, I simply mean they were looking up information. The top ten things searched through Google in 2016: 10. Hillary Clinton 9. Election 8. Trump 7. David Bowie 6. Olympics 5. Slither. io 4. Pokemon Go 3. Hurricane Matthew 2. Prince, and number 1 was Powerball.
Just always remember to research responsibly and make sure your resources are legitimate and factual. Most importantly, don’ t lose sight of something more powerful than technology- the brain that creates it or uses it.