The Future

Blog #2

Blog Topic #2: Knowing that my students’ futures are going to be incredibly intertwined and linked with a variety of technological needs I plan to help my students use technology to communicate and to function better. With the right education they will be able to use technology to meet some of their needs.

My students, nine boys in grades three through five, all have autism. While they have never been given any instruction in school on how to use computers, the internet, or computer games, they are very computer savvy and they all very much enjoy using computers. By watching each other, contemplating how the adults in the classroom use computers and by experimenting on their own they have learned how to Google, download games and images and use many fun web sites. They are completely comfortable and quite bright where computers are concerned.

The areas in which they need help are communication and interpersonal relationships. And like everyone else, they of course need an education.

Technology is being used to give them an education. PowerPoint animations are used to teach them math concepts, vocabulary, spelling, plus much more.

The fact that technology is going to play a major role in people’s lives weighs heavily in their favor. They will be able to obtain much of what they need through the internet. Online they can purchase air line tickets, books, music, clothes and movie tickets. It will be easiest for them to negotiate on line. It is both quick and efficient and it allows them to sidestep awkward or confusing social situations. They will even be able to make friends on line or have a second life if that is what they want.

Instead of technology being an obstacle, my students may be able to use computers to their advantage. Currently I have a student who keys unfamiliar words he hears or sees into a hand held spelling device which he then takes to a computer where he can Google the word in question.

There may even be employment opportunities in the technological world of the future for some of my students. When I was the same age as my students no one had ever heard of computer programming. Yet as a young adult I worked at Lockheed as an entry level programmer. Are there going to be jobs in the future, technological jobs, that will be a good fit for some of my students?

The kids in my classroom are intelligent and energetic. They simply have a unique mode of operation and different perspectives. If they receive a sound education along with the basics of communication and people skills, the technological world of the future might be a reasonable place for them.