Rat Race

I can easily identify with the behaviors described as search in the Emily Yoffe article for Slate Seeking. In Seeking Yoffe describes obsessive searching behavior seen in many mammalian species, including humans. This behavior described as foraging, anticipation, craving, expectancy, and interest is where the creator is constantly in search for small bits of something. In animals such as a mice and dogs it could be constantly and obsessively searching for food. Most people would recognize this behavior when they with cats using a laser pointer. The animal is constantly in search for the small bits never being satisfied. In humans we can relate this to obsessively searching through google, facebook, imdb, twitter, or google+ for new information. It is like we are stuck in an endless loop, with no way to ctl-alt-del our way out of it. Now my question as an educator is how do we access this feedback loop in students, to get them to have endless need to learn new knowledge, while using higher cognitive skills?

Today with our ever increasing technology skills we need to pull away our students' attention from their facebook, twitter, and google+ feeds and get them to focus their dopamine drenched lateral hypothalumus' towards learning increasing levels of knowledge. I can imaging using twitter and facebook to produce and share creative audio and visual projects that connect global and local problems in science (in my classroom biology and physics) to the content they are learning. The generation we are education has grown up in the digital age. We might as well embrace their use in technology to hit key content standards and benchmarks.

With students growing up with the internet, the difference between one's public and private persona is becoming ever increasing blurred. Most teens today live on facebook (or transferring to google+...) and the difference between their public and private lives is coming together as one. At the dividing line between Gen X and Gen Y, I feel I grew up in two worlds. In elementary and middle school, I grew up in the world, where there was a distinct line between one's public life (accomplishments and activities at school and in public) and your private life at home. Before facebook and smartphones, it was considered rude to not give your friends and visitors your full attention. However, since smartphones have become the dominant medium to disseminate information, being connected to outside people is now kosher. I see myself checking and updating my facebook feed when I am out with my friends at the bar. I don't really consider it rude anymore. 

In the reading The Wired Life: The public and private sphere of the gen M community, the authors describe the two different persons that exist in the wired age: publicly private and privately public.  As educators we need insure students know when to utilize these two different roles in their lives. We want students to cognizant when the message board postings, blogs, podcasts, and vodcasts they create open up their identities globally. Perhaps sometimes a privately public persona would be more useful when student creations would open them up to cyberbullying and identity theft.