Responding in Kind

As I get adjusted to my new class and peep a bit down at next year's class, one thing seems to evident. That thing is the necessary response for teachers to understand the ever evolving world and culture that our students are growing up within. Example: Last year I had one or two students that were really pushing to get a cellphone for Christmas. This year I already have students sharing a cellphone plan with their parents and it is an Iphone. I also have students who came into 2nd grade with Facebook accounts. Oh and I forgot to mention that they have Ipod Touches, Nintendo DSis, and many other gadgets.
The reason there needs to be a teacher response is that we are fooled if we believe that we can just copy last year's program (and who knows how many years before that). There is a new class of students, that is evolving rapidly, that is connected, tech savvy, and ultimately bent towards visual and interactive learning. Our response cannot be more lecture, more paper based learning, and ancient games like Number Munchers (I used to live for this game!).
If we can, we need to respond with educationally based tech tools that the kids are familiar with. We need to find ways to bring value to the Ipod Touch, the cellphone, the Wii, the DSi, and so on. I am not saying that we reject practices that are proven to be effective, but most likely we are holding on to "sacred cows" that could be replaced with tools designed to make learning more relevant and exciting.
I believe that anyone that plans to stick around in education for awhile will fall into two groups. They will either fight against this growing wave with ancient practice or they will respond in kind, armed with evolving tools for evolving students. Please meet me with your weapons in tow!