Technology in the Classroom

I believe technology influences our curriculum in classrooms every day. I also believe that with the increase of technology use in our society, teachers are feeling the pressure to incorporate technology in lesson plans each day! 

When reflecting on the ISTE standards, I found the standards for teachers especially critical because as an educator it is our job to enforce these standards to provide the best learning environment for our students. One of the standards I would consider outside of my personal skill set would be computational thinking. Collecting data, extracting information and analyzing is something I do not do very often and would need to work on in order to best relate and educate my students!  The ISTE standard that resonated with me and presented as meaningful is being aninnovative designer.Generating ideas, testing theories, and solving problems are skills that most of us use every day and it is so important for our students to explore! 

As I was reading Marc Prensky’s article, I couldn’t help but agree with his label of the new students today as being “digital natives”. I believe that students today have a new way of learning things, these ways are completely different than students in a classroom 20 years ago. A digital native is an individual who adopts and “speaks the language” of computers, video games and the internet. A “digital immigrant” is an individual who is fascinated by and have adopted most aspects of the new technology. These individuals were not born into the wave of technology and are left to learn and adopt. An example of a digital immigrant is a teacher! The difference between a digital native and a digital immigrant when using technology is fascinating to watch. Often times, a digital immigrant (who may be older) looks to the digital native for advice and instruction on how to use a specific technology product. I recall having substitute teachers growing up, after many failed attempts in trying to work the smart board, they would desperately ask a student to help them figure it out. Many times, the students would offer their help before the substitute teacher even turned the smart board on In the future, I anticipate the next generation of teachers to have a better grasp on the new technology. This is because, many of the teachers will be  “digital natives”, having grown up in our technology influenced era!

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