Net Gens "next greatest generation?"

When I first read the questions I needed to answer in my blog all i could think about was the "language" that our students are going to speak. I am a person in the net generation I i have seen the rise of iming and texting first hand and honestly I think it has not been a completely positive thing. Texting and iming are extremely helpful because you can do them while doing other things where as talking on the phone or in person pretty much takes all your attention but i feel as if some people have become so unwilling to make a phone call or meet up in person that they are loosing some of their social skills and ability to have a conversation without thirty seconds to assure that their response is correct. The language question for me also centers around the short hand everyone uses i hate it. If you send me a text that says idk lol I dont have a problem its quicker simpler whatever but if I am standing next to you and say where do you want to go for dinner and you look at me and say "idk lol" there is a decent change my head will explode. First of all idk is not any easier to say than "i don't know" and second of all I can see that your not laughing out loud so don't tell me you are. I think it makes people of my generation look terribly dumb and very lazy. No wonder we have an obesity problem if people have become to lazy to say whole words. Another problem with the net gens is that they write papers how they write blogs and ims. Proper or atleast close to proper English still needs to be used sometimes.

As far as the technology being used in the classroom I think its great to an extent. Its great to get kids looking things up and using webquests and podcasts to learn but i still feel there are times when reading a page in the book and taking notes can be the best way to get the information. The way in which I would like to use technology in my classroom is to reinforce those dreadful notes I make my students take. Something that reading the articles made me think as that using blogs would excite the students because they know people out there can read them. I never thought of this. Without that thought i probably never would have even thought of taking time out to set up student blogs but knowing that excitment i feel that it can be worth while, expecially in a high school social studies class. The one thing that frightens me is that the blogs can be read by everyone and there are alot of "wierdos" out there. But i feel that as long as the students are warned before hand not to share personal information than they should be able to avoid the "weirdos". I feel that my perspective on the whole thing is similar to the students but not identical. I grew up with ims and texts but todays students almost need those things to be able to have freinds. Its crazy how attached to these things our youth have become. I feel that if i could not email, text or im for a month I would be fine I would not lose touch with any close friends, but i feel that these kids would be lost.

The technology that I found fasinating that I had never heard about before these articles was the "google docs". The thought of an online document that a group can edit and create together never crossed my mind but it is a wondeful tool. I feel like so much of the stress that kids had over group projects could be avoided with these. They are remarkable I mean if four kids had a project together they could all do it at their own pace an own time and still come up with a project that is all one and not splintered. I have never used this program but i am sure i will in the future.