On Friday, March 13th, Avonworth High School participated in the district’s Digital Learning Day, where classes featured digital instruction and interaction without a single handout or worksheet. This is shocking news to those of us who have been digital all of high school. Even teachers who incorporate technology everyday were baffled by the seemingly random and ill-timed approach of the day.
The real question, however, is why have a digital day now? Perhaps an entire day celebrating the digital age would have been timely circa 2009, but in 2015, we’re just hammering in the same old story.
The high school has been digital since I have entered these long, confining halls. In Mr. Pastore’s Satire class, almost all learning is completely digital every day, which is accessible using Google Classroom. Every student uses Naviance and other digital career and college aids in Mrs. Maisner’s 9th grade classes. The sudden approach of digital day merely served to point out flaws in our digital system and notoriously bad technology.
Whenever computers were difficult, the wi-fi was slow, or technology was anything but perfect, Digital Learning Day was lauded as a complete joke. Instead of carrying on, happy with our digital abilities and progress, we instead faced head on the struggles of technology, and why good ol’ paper isn’t such a bad idea.
Ironically enough, the master scheduling materials were basically released on Digital Day; on the floor beneath the printer in the library, piles of schedules and scheduling sheets lay unused.
Also, calling the day “Digital Learning Day” just inspired kids to resent the idea in itself. Some kids, myself included, brought fresh notebooks and adamantly refused to do things completely digital. Instead, I sharpened my pencil and took better notes than I ever have. I really love technology; my phone is truly my most important, enamoring possession. I just really hated having options (options that would not matter to me in the first place) taken away.
In the spirit of destroying any future digital days, make sure to check out the Avonews. You know, real paper, like they have in the movies!