Who Are You ?
By Chris Sefcheck Thomas Jefferson High School Principal est Jefferson Hills WEST JEFFERSON HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS — THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
W hen did it all begin ? It used to be that the library had all the answers ; we simply referenced the card catalog and quickly ran to the shelves where we found the book ( s ) we needed to help us . Eventually , we were able to sort through the microfiche projector to quickly ( in relative terms ) read old newspaper articles or periodicals .
It seemed as though this whole technology birth exponentially changed everything right before us , leaving some far behind , others shuffling to keep up , and others leaps and bounds ahead of the curve . Why is this so important ? Hopefully I can answer that in the confines of this little page .
I stopped near the escalators at South Hills Village recently because something caught my eye . Everyone I seemed to pass wasn ’ t watching where they going , they had their faces planted in a device ; whether it be a tablet or phone , they were definitely occupied . I made it a point to sit and watch 100 people go up / down the escalators to get an accurate picture of how many people were buried in devices . I even overheard some of the conversations between seemingly happy couples together . Topics ranged from “ Look and see if you can find any coupons online for …” or “ Check and see if it is cheaper at Macy ’ s than JC Penney ’ s .” I ’ ll share the percentage of passersby towards the end of this article , so see if you can guess what it is yourself first .
Why am I even talking about this ? What in the heck does this have to do with education ? Let me tell you , it has everything to do with education . I see the same things in the
54 West Jefferson Hills hallways between passing periods . Sure , the conversations are different but the purpose is the same . Everyone is engaging themselves at all times . There is no “ powering down .” In the classroom , what ’ s the difference between scurrying through an index page of a textbook or asking Siri to answer what the dates of the Battle of Gettysburg were ? The safe bet is on Siri … Education is evolving ; every student of every age has a nearly infinite bank of resources in their hands at all times . The hardest part for them is determining which is accurate or which online jabber from a “ non-trusted ” source is . We owe it to our students , parents , and faculty to teach everyone about Primary Sources ; websites we can trust to be accurate . We also need to teach problem solving and higher-order critical thinking skills , something everyone needs too !
The answer is 73 . Yep , 73 % of the 100 people I observed were deeply entrenched in their devices , many of them for unknown reasons . An article I read in the “ Business Insider ” leads me to believe that many were doing research or playing on social media . By research , I simply mean they were looking up information . The top ten things searched through Google in 2016 : 10 . Hillary Clinton 9 . Election 8 . Trump 7 . David Bowie 6 . Olympics 5 . Slither . io 4 . Pokemon Go 3 . Hurricane Matthew 2 . Prince , and number 1 was Powerball .
Just always remember to research responsibly and make sure your resources are legitimate and factual . Most importantly , don ’ t lose sight of something more powerful than technology - the brain that creates it or uses it .