Am I a Dinosaur?

Attending NECC virtually has been fascinating. Not the same as being there for sure, but reading and watching what I can, I do feel a connection to what happened. There is still a long list of videos/podcasts to catch up on, but I’m brining my official attendance to a close.

The twitter-skype chat-live blog thing has me thinking a lot about my own personal preferences for learning, and so I wonder…am I a dinosaur?

When I want to really concentrate on something, I have to focus on it and immerse myself. If its reading, I dont like the tv on. If its writing, no music in the background. Attending a session with a speaker I want to hear – that’s all I want to hear. If its practicing the piano, then that’s it. OK, maybe one little exception – I like to have a cup of coffee while doing any of those things…

We talk all the time about how kids multi-task, and reports are coming out that brains are working differently. Are there any kids left who need to focus? Who really should turn off the chat client and log out of the social site to get something done (even if they don’t want to)?

Am I the new dinosaur? Is the ice age that is going to freeze my bones in perpetuity a huge spout of ones and zeroes that the younger generation can process and manage with the flick of a finger? I consider myself reasonably tech-savvy, but what do we need to do in schools to meet the needs of these kids? Or, are we just letting them be over-stimulated and under-focused when we should still be guiding them in how to train their minds?
Definitely a Russo’s Rambling…

And on that note, pointatopointb is going to power-down for a couple of weeks. Its that time of summer when I dig into my hosting site, re-learn how to tweak, align and update all the background stuff, and get ready to launch into the new year. I really like the current design for the site (implemented last year), so probably no new look for the new year, but maybe some tweaks and such as I upgrade the verison of WordPress. See ya soon!

“Dinosaur Skeleton.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 6 July 2007.