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This is my reaction to **Did You Know**. I don't want a computer in my blood cell! Seriously, it's kind of scary to me how far technology has come. One word: Terminator. Now that may be a stretch, but the possibilities certainly out there, right? Just a few weeks ago on the radio I heard someone talking about machines that were being built to think for themselves in combat situations. Has a creepy and foreboding similarity if you ask me. I think it's great that the advances in technology are giving more people access to information and keeping everyone up to date and in touch. But ironically, it's also creating some distance between people. Families used to sit around and interact with one another or watch TV together. Not anymore. Friends used to meet and talk--now they just chat on facebook. There's so much about technology that seems to just be taking the human element out of everyday life: people walking around with cyborg clips on their ears talking on their cell phones; kids with earbuds glued in their ears because they can't stand to be seen in public with parents. I'm a little alarmed by the amount of texting that kids are doing and the amount of illegal music downloading that's going on as well. It seems like we're getting more thrown at us and at such a fast pace that we can't keep up with what needs to be done to regulate or adjust to any of it.

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 I don't necessarily consider myself to be technologically savvy; but when I have to learn how to use something, I'm quite capable of doing so. Personally, I prefer the old-fashioned ways of doing things: paper and pencil instead of word processing; books instead of e-readers; tapes and records instead of mp3s; letters instead of emails; the telephone instead of facebook. However, I understand that this is the way the world's headed (or I should say, the way it has already become); and I don't want to be left behind. I'm still not a facebook user--I don't know if I ever will be. But I recognize the importance of allowing students to use such technologies in the classroom. Anything that can get students motivated to work in school, and can help them become more productive members of society--to help keep them up to speed with the rest of the world--is something that we need to be using in the classroom. If that means that I need to set aside my stubborn preference for antiquated, anachronistic forms of language and communication, so be it. My job is to prepare students for life, not to keep them stuck in the past for nostalgic purposes.
 * Technology Autobiography**