In today’s zoom lecture we had the privilege of having Jesse Miller as a guest lecturer. Jesse spoke to us about technology and social media in education. I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation, it was very eye opening and insightful.

When I was in high school I remember searching up so many of my past and present teachers and not being able to find anything and I always found that so interesting, it could’ve been that maybe they were a part of a generation that didn’t have social media or maybe they just did a really good job at hiding their personal life and social media accounts from their students. It is crazy to me that now I have to deal with that. I have to think about everything I post starting from now on and also anything I have posted on social media in the past. I always wondered how social media and google searches would affect the process of becoming a teacher because it always seemed like such a big deal. After hearing Jesse talk today apparently it actually is a really big deal. I have always been careful with what I post on social media, it’s how my mom raised me. She taught me to always be careful about what I post on the internet. Also, growing up in school I feel like teachers always talked about being careful about what you post on the internet because once something is posted there is a possibility that whatever you posted could be out there forever. I am curious with how strict employers will be in the future in regards to pictures posted on Instagram, Facebook, etc. like what is seen as bad in their eyes? Certain pictures can be seen as fine to me and other future teachers but what if they’re seen as bad to potential future employers, or future students and their parents, etc. Social media and technology is such a constant thing in today’s generation. I believe Gen Z is the first generation of teachers who have had social media accounts growing up and we need to figure out how to best deal with this because technology definitely isn’t going anywhere.

I agree with what Jesse said about cellphones in the classroom and how if somebody took my cellphone it would most likely cause anxiety and so then why would we want to do that to our future students. Growing up I never agreed with teachers taking students cellphones. It is a student’s personal belonging and taking it is crossing the line for me, there is so many other ways to deal with the cellphone problem in classrooms. Taking students cellphones can also potentially cause parents to get mad, like Jesse mentioned in his presentation, and that is never a good thing.

I really wanted to ask Jesse about Apple Watches and how they are treated in the classroom, teachers having them and even students having them. Apple Watches are essentially a small cellphone that you can wear on your wrist but yet, to my knowledge, most employers allow their employees to have them but they wouldn’t be allowed to hold their cellphone in their hand all day while they’re at work but having an Apple Watch is essentially the same thing. I am really curious how Apple Watches are treated in classrooms especially because cellphones in classrooms and at schools are treated so strictly compared to other careers. I wanted to ask all of this to Jesse in today’s lecture but I get nervous about sounding stupid in front of a lot of people. I will work on becoming more confident and not being scared to ask questions.

Thanks to John Schnobrich for sharing their work on Unsplash.