My technology past, present, and future

   Due to the time in which I was growing up, technology became a huge staple in education. From an early age I knew that these computers that were being hauled into the school were a big deal. I didn't really understand why everyone made such a fuss over it, but at the time, computers had little control over our language. The transition from first to second grade showed me that the world of computers was much, much more than a fancy video game. Soon I was learning how to type, how to print papers, and at the tender age of seven, I was surfing the web. It is a fond memory of mine seeing for the first time, that Netscape lighthouse taking me to the Nickelodeon website. To think that ten years ago I would see the internet for one hour a week, and now I cannot get out of bed without booting my laptop up. The early stages of my interactions with technology were mostly from school, and even at the time they felt like experiments.
     My experimentation was furthered in middle school, which had a whole hour a day devoted to learning how to type, and despite their years of effort, I still refuse to take my eyes off the keyboard. We never got far past word processing, typing, and spreadsheets; but with Fridays to ourselves in the computer lab, I truly learned how massive this internet is. It had the answers to everything, it knew the secrets to every video game I owned, it contained movies, television, and even comics. In middle school, I think the most important thing I learned is that the internet is massive, outrageously massive. Cell phones became more and more common, and much to my surprise, internet cell phones!
     With high school came another step in technology. Modern computing came in a matter of months. Flash drives, Apple devices, wireless internet, but no jetpacks. It was an intriguing world that I had now learned to live in, and become accustomed to in such a short amount of time. "My phone is also a television" was something that would have been laughed off one year, and shrugged off the next. For my education, every class seemed to employ some sort of technology, even weightlifting class had us wear electronic monitors from time to time. I could see where classes like math and chemistry needed a couple of days here and there in a computer lab, but there were many days in art where I was adding shadowing to a font not on paper and charcoal, but on my own laptop. Communication had evolved into a form more suitable for a world that had compressed itself under technology. A new, smaller world where .docx files replaced papers, and beautiful presentations about Macedonian culture could be slapped together in an afternoon with a little help from Google images and Wikipedia. I have never found myself to be a lazy student, I just knew where I could find the information easiest.
    I do not feel like our education system and our technologies are complimenting each other. With the things available to the world today, why are we continuing to build our universities the same way they were built a hundred years ago? My exposure to the complexities of modern technology is going to mean that I learn, and will teach, from a different perspective. Looking at my first twelve years of education, I feel that people were paid a lot of money to put me in front of a computer monitor. Why is it suddenly now that my success depends upon my sense of connection between me and the subject being taught a hundred yards away?
     My future classroom should be a walking demonstration. It will not be fifty-minute sessions where three things are taught, homework is assigned, and everyone leaves. I expect that by the time I enter the classroom, students will be far beyond that of what I was at their age when it comes to computers. I was introduced to the computer at seven, some of these kids got cell phones at seven. My future classroom will rely somewhat on the young persons ability to process information when it is given in a clear, assessable format.
     Do you know what the worst thing about a textbook is? The worst thing about a textbook is that it has mass, is affected by gravity, takes up space, and must be carried in a bag attached to your spine. Doing away with textbooks should happen soon, in my opinion, not to say that all publishers will go out of business, but if I can carry one laptop instead of four books, I shouldn't have to force my students to do so.
     Of course, the biggest problem I face with a classroom filled with technology is the kids knowing how to use said technology. As a youngster I was the bane of teachers who didn't care to go home and just learn how to play with a computer. I can invert color schemes on Macs in one button combination, I can brute-force your wireless network, I can make it so your computer cannot type vowels. My worst fear is that I will be that old man who is bested because he couldn't keep up with the times.
      As for texting, which I know to be a problem and could only get worse, I will most likely employ a very large magnet, because no one likes to get their phone erased.