Introduction

 Hi folks,

My name is Mary Laffey (she/her/hers) and I'm an aspiring librarian currently working at Dominican's Rebecca Crown Library as well as the College of DuPage (and yes I do love Laffy Taffy's). My two current positions are both wonderful, but I'm hoping to land a full-time gig as an instructional librarian at a community college.

I grew up with two younger siblings, both of whom simultaneously drive me insane and make my life better, and parents who were teachers and avid readers. As a lifelong learner and a bibliophile myself, I'm excited to learn about new ways to use technology to positively impact other learners, and hopefully feel confident in the ever-changing reality of its nature.

Pinterest: Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Like Spidey, I plan on learning from others as much as I can, especially when it comes to reexamining personal biases, cultivating cultural competency, and effectively implementing technology in the classroom.

For some time, navigating technology was something that came to me naturally, likely because I grew up in the era of its creation and widespread embrace. Before I had my own phone or computer, however, I loved watching movies with my siblings on the TV Friday nights, and listening to music that my parents had on CDs. Whenever I was reading and came across a word I didn't know, I either used the words surrounding it to define its meaning, or grudgingly looked up the word in our dictionary after my parents told me to, instead of just telling me themselves! My "screen time" was often limited by my parents, who had a healthy relationship with screens and often encouraged us to play outside or be creative, putting time constraints on how much TV we watched that day.

Now however, technology has a much greater, more influential hold on me, and everyone, than it previously did now that screens are a daily part of life for most Americans. I'll find myself losing chunks of time after scrolling through Instagram out of boredom, putting on the TV just for the noise of it, and reaching for my phone every time I see a word I don't know, instead of waiting...and thinking. My relationship with technology takes up a lot of my time and energy, but I believe it's a relationship worth maintaining, so long as it remains healthy.

Our smart devices provide access to any query we may have about the human condition, yet we use them to check the weather, touch up our makeup, or even tell us truths which we choose to blindly accept. The rise in misinformation not only makes reliable news sources and online truths harder to emphasize, but also educating the larger population on how to use the Internet as an educational asset. Technology is too ingrained in our lives, and the lives of students, to eliminate it as a teaching tool, which is why educators should integrate information literacy, fact-checking skills, and technological competence within the classroom. For that matter, teachers themselves must be lifelong learners in terms of adapting to technology's ever-changing nature to find new ways to engage students meaningfully, and guide them toward a smart and positive relationship with screens.