Thing #15

I remember having to learn the Dewy Decimal system and how to find a book by the author's name or my the books title. I went to school in the 60's and 70's. My first experience with technology was a punch card computer with basic language in the office of my physics class. I didn't undertand it and wasn't interested in understanding. The library of my youth is long since gone; a place of quiet solitude; a place where I used to go to for story telling sessions; a place that smelled of dusty, moldy books and and file cards where the only words heard were "shhhhh!". Students today understand quickly all of the latest technology to help them succeed. The days of doing research cards and the like are long gone. I doubt if there is a college student out there that does a research paper the way that many teachers are still teaching them (note cards etc.) I still remember carrying home arm-loads of books. I think that teaching students to look up items and write them down teaches them that learning comes in many fashions and methods. Many of the "things" that we have done so far are of great value. I don't have the classroom environment to utilize them though. I know in my heart that the students core teachers are passing on these tools to them and that is what matters.To keep up with this ever-changing technology, exercises like this are extremely valuable. We need more hands on tasks such as this to help us along the way. The problem that I see is a lack of computer access and a lack of people who are knowledgeable enough to get this information across to the students. After reading the five perspectives on Library 2.0 and viewing the vidoe on Web2.0 I find that it is important to understand the past and embrace the future of learning.