I Just Caught Up With Technology!! Oh…Wait….

Before this whole blogging kick, if you had asked me if I was technologically adept I would have told you that I certainly was.  Well, folks…

I don’t know crap, and most of the rest of us don’t, either!!!

I have been enveloped in a whole new world the past 2 weeks; a world of plug-ins, widgets, FTP, CGI, RoR, apps, code, and XML.  While only using google for a search engine and email in the past, I am now addicted to analytics and adsense.  I used to only shop on Amazon, but now I am a loyal member of their Affiliate program.  It’s like finding the hidden wardrobe that leads you to Narnia…it’s overwhelming, but it’s also so cool!

I also have taken time to familiarize myself with sites like digg and stumbleupon and apps buffer and wiziapp.  There are a ton more, and in the time it took me to check these out, someone was creating another one!

That’s the coolest part: it’s not only that these great tools exist, it’s that people have dedicated their lives to creating them for us, even (if not only) as a small side hustle.  If you get into wordpress the way I have and decide to check out widgets, it will become very apparent to you that while most people have been sitting on their asses watching bad TV reruns, others have been launching technology forward at a warp-speed pace.

Just when I was feeling really old, I went to the college where I teach yesterday and asked all my students about all the things I learned, thinking that they would laugh at me and, yes…..call me the old guy.  Lo and behold, they had no clue how to negotiate around this stuff either!!

I’m looking at my 7 year old son right now an thinking that this kid needs to know how to create using technology, not just how to use it.  To use it is to be a consumer; to create uses for it is to truly thrive and be free.

I’m also thinking about our schools.  There is no way that our schools can keep up with the advances we are making, but it is absolutely imperative that our kids learn how to:

  • create a blog or website
  • write basic html code
  • create an app
  • design a widget

some way or another.

I highly recommend that all you readers check this stuff out the way I have…it is definitely not too late, but technology is only going to grow in leaps and bounds, and we need to keep up.  This is one of the biggest learning curves life may throw at us, and we need to rise to the challenge. Besides….it’s really freaking fun!

Post here and tell me what else I am missing…websites, apps, widgets, anything!

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