"Today's average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV)." I wouldn’t be surprised; that sounds about right. Needless to say, I am a Digital Native. However, I can relate to Digital Immigrants.
Growing up, the technology in my classroom was cutting edge! We had dry erase boards and overhead projectors and movies on VHS! It sounds ridiculous now, but at the time, this was all really exciting! I feel very fortunate to have experienced the transition from chalkboards and filmstrips. It has allowed me to truly appreciate the technological advances we’ve experienced so far. For that reason, I feel like a bridge connecting Digital Immigrants with Digital Natives.
When properly used, technology is an effective tool that can improve the learning experience. Technology is only a tool though. In college, I took a course where lectures were pre-taped and broadcast to students in class. The only time I saw the professor in person was during the final exam. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn much in that class. I'm certain we will experience failure in our attempts to incorporate technology in the classroom, but I'm sure we will learn a lot through the process of trial and error.
I’m excited about technology's potential in the classroom. For math, calculators and computers can be used not only to calculate more accurately and efficiently, but also to create visual representations of ideas and concepts. Technology can be used to teach anything!
In order to be an effective teacher, you have to know your students. Prensky’s articles reminded me that today’s students think and process information differently. "Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." Therefore, we need to effectively incorporate technology into our teaching to keep our students engaged. Prensky calls attention to the fact that “[t]oday’s learners are different.” Even with technology, students will be different. As teachers, we must identify our students’ various learning styles and incorporate a variety of teaching strategies to improve the learning experience. Most importantly, we must recognize that technology is only a tool and that exposing today’s students to a variety of teaching strategies (even some "old stuff") will only challenge their brains to think in new and different ways.
Hello Steven! First of all, amazing blog. You have outdone yourself and me. It seems you have a great deal of knowledge about current technology and that will no doubt be helpful to you when teaching. It's a perfect metaphore for our age group, being a bridge between Digital Immigrants and Natives. I feel the same way. We got to see the progression so it is difficult to compare us to our parents age group who had to learn all the new technologies at an older age and children now, who are very savy and think we are silly if we are not.
ReplyDeleteAmazing blog, I look forward to reading it more.
From,
Hayley
Hey Steven,
ReplyDeleteNice job with the blog! I like the background and making an engaging site. Congrats on being in the club of Digital Natives with me. I'm excited as well with bringing technology into the classroom to teach math.
Keep up the good work and I'll check back in soon.
Marc