Digital Natives

I think the term “digital natives” is very fitting for today’s students. I am astounded at what some of my first grade students know about computers and their advanced experience with technology. As an immigrant to technology, it has taken many years for me to learn what some of my students seem to inherently know. By incorporating contemporary instructional software to engage students in their learning, teachers can foster growth academically, socially, and provide real-world applications. After watching the two video clips, I realized that certain digital programs can enhance and promote higher–order thinking skills by engaging students actively in problem solving simulations and having them apply critical thinking skills to the program they are working on.

By integrating technology into daily instruction, teachers would be able to address a variety of different learning styles and levels. The video clip, “Digital Youth Portrait: Sam,” touched on so many varieties of technology that can be applied to the classroom. One that caught my attention in particular was the illustration of using an ipod. When students are auditory learners, it may be difficult for them to sit down and read a book to themselves. The clip pointed out that a book can be downloaded on an ipod and the student can read along as the book is read aloud. This application allows students to have books and opportunities for learning with them wherever they go; meaning that learning is not solely limited to the classroom.

We read earlier in the course that some theorists believe that learning takes place when students can connect a concept to their prior knowledge. Since students of today most likely have had some experience with technology, they are probably interested in what it has to offer. Interest in something can lend itself to a longer attention span, which I then can conclude may lead to an increase in the rate and amount of information students can learn.

If I was teaching in an ideal technology situation, I see using technology as a wonderful tool for learning. Since I teach first grade, I don’t think my students would be creating video games, but I would love to use computers as learning tools to teach the curriculum. Having computers for every student would mean endless options of teaching to each learner’s ability level and interest. Students would have access to word processing, spreadsheets and graphs. I found table 4.3 in the book to be interesting because it states that students have shown greater quantity of writing, fewer mechanical errors and a better attitude towards writing when using a word processing document.

Although many positive things can come from using technology all the time in the classroom, I think there are also some negative things that can come from such change. With young students, the teacher may spend more time teaching how to use a particular program rather than getting to the curricular learning objective. Also, since only 33% of students in low income households have computers at home (Prensky 2001) if learning is always taking place on the computer, students may have a difficult time applying their learning outside of the classroom if it is not in the same accessible context.

In general, I think that increased technology usage in all classrooms would provide numerous benefits, but I still think there needs to be a “paper and pencil” application to learning.

Teaching Interests and Instructional Topics

Being that this is my first post, I wanted to talk about some of my teaching interests and topics which I would like to integrate technology into. I teach first grade, so naturally I am interested in teaching reading. The students are so eager to learn about how different letter combinations make words and that those words have meaning. Reading is a skill that is used throughout your entire life, so I feel it is so important to help children become engaged readers from the very start. There are so many opportunites to incorporate reading into all curriculum areas, and the use of technology enhances the way in which teachers can teach reading. Today's children are so driven by technology and things that appear on screens, that it seems like a no-brainer to use their interests to support learning. There are so many websites and programs that can build reading skills. I would like to use some of those educational websites in my teaching practice. Each classroom in my school has an LCD projector that is connected to the teacher's computer. I find that using the projector to do even the most mundane task can make it more exciting and engaging. I use the LCD pretty regularly, but there are so many more opportunities to use the technology my district provides that I would hope this course helps me to recognize.