Back in the day…
Sebah Al-Ali
We are surrounded with so many devices and technologies now that we cannot survive without them anymore, or remember how life was before them. Many of our students weren’t even alive in an era that functioned without many of these devices, like cell phones!
This is why it could be interesting and engaging to discuss a life without technology with students, for a speaking or a writing class. You can ask them to imagine how life would be without their cell phones or mobile devices. It could be interesting to see that they would still not be able to imagine life without a lot of technology they take for granted.
To get your class started, you might like to play this Sesame Street episode in 1995 in which Oscar gets a cell phone and uses it for the first time:
Loved how he utilized the redial “feature” : D .. Or, you can play this video showing how kids react to old film cameras –the first thing they do with it is take a selfie, which they “shockingly” cannot see right away!
You can also utilize instagram for this activity and ask your students to post a collage of two pictures showing how one situation can be different with and without cell phones, like a classroom, a family dinner, etc. Something like this picture:
