Here’s a cool idea for a lesson to get students thinking about the impact of technology on their lives and on their futures.
Checkout the 75 references on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List (www.beloit.edu/mindset/2016/). This nonscientific compilation is meant to remind teachers that college freshmen, born mostly in 1994, have experienced the world in a much different way than we have. Many of them relate to technology; they have never seen an airplane “ticket,” never listen to music on the car radio, gene therapy has always been an available treatment, and they watch television everywhere but on a television. Seriously!
1. Ask students to read the list and discuss the references to the”old days” that they don’t get just to clear things up.
2. Identify the technology related items in the list.
3. Ask them to create their own list as they image technology will change their lives five or ten years from now. Might be fun to add it to your files to see just how “prophetic” they happen to be.
4. Now tie it altogether with a discussion of how computer science will make these things happen.
What CS concepts are they going to learn about that will be necessary to bring their predictions to reality?
What CS careers will be involved?
Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice