1) Out of 127 students I had 1 who did not use any technology the entire day! Everyone else had to use it for school work or just decided to watch TV anyway.
2) Most of the kids found that they were more productive after school since they were not on the computer.
3) Many students spent their time reading (yeah!), working on homework, or getting ahead on homework. All three of these facts makes our team very happy!
4) They found other activities to complete! Some helped with dinner, read, and one girl even did the hula hoop!
5) The talked to their parents! Many kids wrote that instead of putting their ipods in during a car ride they talked to their parents -so that was good!
6) Over all I think it was a GREAT experience for the kids and I'm happy we tried it.
Below are some of the quotes I took out of their writing to share with you and my comments are in red:
“Instead of using technology I mostly read my book which was nice because I don’t do that all the time. I have learned that I waste a lot of time watching T.V. or playing computer games when I could be doing something productive.” –Shannon C. These types of comments make me so happy!
“I think this was a good experience for me to learn about life without all of the technologies we have today.” Amanda M – Went all day w/o tech! Good job Amanda!
“I discovered that I don’t need technology to get through the day, it’s just something for pleasure and can be very addicting.” –Miranda H. Very true, I have this problem too!
“It’s official – my life revolves around technology. It was extremely difficult to NOT use it, especially when I’m surrounded by it. I sometimes with I could go back to the 70’s – when life was so much simpler without all this new technology stuff. It’s overwhelming and time consuming.” Kim F. Interesting!
“Throughout today I realized how much modern technology plays a part in my life.” – Lauren S.
“I miss Facebook.: - Becca D Hahahahaha
“My whole life is really based around technology and never even realized it. A lot of good came out of it though. When I came straight home and finished all my homework without going on the computer; it left me with more time at night for whatever I wanted to do. Instead of sitting on the computer for the remainder of the day I went outside and played basketball so I got more exercise too. Overall this was a very tough assignment.” – Morgan W.
“OMG this was hard.” – Sirena A. Is it okay to use texting language in a technology assignment?
“The most difficult thing was not going on Facebook or listening to music. I slept so that I could pass the time.” – Kim P. Wow - more than one student said that - amazing!
“When I got home from school, I lasted about forty-five minutes, after I couldn’t take it any longer, I played video games.” – Gordy B. Oh no!
“The worst part was the temptation.” – Dani L.
“The day without technology has been very hard and weird. I guess we take technology for granted. We need to realize that technology is a gift and people today don’t realize what it was like before we had television or ipods. Like everyone else I am one of those people and the day without technology has shown me that we do not always need technology.” – John C. I've never thought of it as a gift, but what a great point!
“When I was first assigned this assignment I said to myself that, wow, this won’t be that hard. I can go ONE day. Turns out I was wrong.” –Jordan K. Yeah, that was what I was hoping for!
“I never thought technology had influenced our lives so much that it is our EVERYDAY routine.” – Jordan K.
What a great experiment! Can you spend a day or more without technology?
The thought put into the student journals was so great. Fantastic outcome. Technology is a gift that we all take advantage of and the other day I saw an article asking if it was a basic human right to have the internet/technology. That should spark some debate. I think food, love and shelter should come above the internet in our priorities.
ReplyDeleteYour students were thoughtful and it seems truthful with what they did. Nice lesson.
Thanks Leslie, I'd love to hear how your students do with a similar lesson. I had another student hand in a paper today and she wrote, "To end this excruciating temptation I'm just going to bed. I can feel in my fingers the NEED to text." I think some of them would choose technology over food sometimes!
ReplyDeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Leslie; getting them to track their feelings and "urges" to use technology throughout the day led to some deeper reflections. What I also found interesting is that we didn't hear your response to going without technology for a day.
Personally, the last time I completely went off the grid was in July. My wife's family has a house in the Adirondacks that is fairly remote, with little cell coverage. The biggest thing I missed? Reading. I found that my reading habits have changed so much that most of my reading takes place online, and without access to internet, my normal reading choices, mostly non-fiction and news, were hard to come by.
However, I highly recommend doing it every so often.