Blog 1- Teaching and Technology

Today in 2020, technology is a massive part of our lives. We don’t go a day without some form of interaction with technology, whether we realize it or not. Technology has become so normal in our everyday lives. With that, we have begun to see increased technology in the classroom. I believe what influences us to use technology in the classroom is that it’s more of a need to incorporate it rather than a want. The purpose of education is to prepare our students for life, and part of that is learning how to use technology.

Of the 5 technology standards listed by the ISTE, “Citizens” seems the most important. This standard encourages educators to help students know how to use technology safely and effectively. The standard mentions “digital literacy” and “media fluency” which is very important in our technologically involved society. Our students are likely going to be engaging in technology outside of school, so teaching them responsibility in that area will be extremely helpful for them and society as they learn to become good citizens technologically. Technology and internet are complex and have to potential to be misused, so being educated on safe use is excellent, making this standard appear to be the most important to me.

To some extent, I do agree with the label “digital native”. This term is used to describe someone who was born in the time frame when technology was prevalent. I was born in 2000 so I would be considered a digital native because I have grown up with technology. While I do believe that one’s technological capabilities are dependent on their experiences as well as one’s openness to technology, I also believe that there are some differences determined by being a digital native or immigrant. If you are a digital immigrant, you might have a harder time learning to use some forms of technology, but when you are a native, you have only ever been familiar with using technology. I have had teachers (digital immigrants) who consistently had trouble doing things as simple as making a video full screen or giving a powerpoint presentation. In those situations, every student in the class knew how to do those things, but the teacher did not, at least not as quickly as the students (digital natives) did. I know there have been a great number of times when my peers and myself were frustrated by the disparities in technological ability between ourselves and our teacher. Fortunately, it did not hurt our ability to learn, it was just annoying. In the future when I am an educator, I expect that since I am a digital native, there will be fewer technological disparities between myself and my students. However, these is still a possibility that as an adult, I won’t be as “in touch” with the new things the same way my students would be. I do plan on teaching elementary school, so the ways we would use technology wouldn’t be as advanced as you would see in middle and high school though. I hope that I won’t get caught up in the old ways of using technology and that I will be constantly learning with my students.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.