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As a student, I cannot imagine trying to do college without Word. I have used it for every single class I have had in college for a variety of tasks. I have made projects on Word, written too many papers to count, created newsletters for my sorority, and used it to take notes for classes. For me, I am a very slow writer, so Word has helped me in certain classes to ensure I am able to keep up with what the Professor is lecturing on. Also, writing a 15-page paper by hand would be absolutely brutal, so word has helped me to ensure I maintain proper grammar and spelling, even when my brain feels like it can't function anymore.

In the academic word, copyright and fair use materials are especially enforced when talking about plagiarism. Plagiarism is more than just copying someone else's words. By not citing a specific source or doing an incomplete or incorrect citation, you may be plagiarizing. I have had teachers who have stories about giving a student a zero for the entire class just because they improperly cited a source. It is evident in every single paper I write and copyrighting work is something to be taken incredibly serious.

A possible implementation issue could arise from privacy. While the internet is very helpful when it comes to education, it can also be harmful if one is not careful. Young children are very innocent, which can be used against them on the internet. One solution to this would be having a split screen monitoring system. If you decide to allow students onto computers provided by the school, then there is technology to see all of the screens as well. This allows for the teacher to be aware of any students straying from the allowed sites and stop them before they do any damage that they may not even realize they are causing. A second issue is a semi-obvious thought, especially with older students: honesty. The internet provides a lot of information and students may be tempted to just copy the information they read online. Sites like Turnitin has taken massive steps to solve problems like this. It takes a students work and processes it through a database to ensure that they have not plagiarized it. It is nearly impossible to get a 0% plagiarism back; however, as long as it is below 10%, you can be almost positive that it was not copied. Finally, complying with ADA standards could be an issue with implementation. ADA compliance means allowing all information to be as accessible to students with disabilities. A solution would be using other techniques like visual aids or physical objects to explain the same concept. The good thing about having technology is while some students are working on the computer, a teacher could be working with students by reiterating things with visuals.

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Technology is nearly a necessity in classrooms now, in my opinion. It allows or students to gain a deeper understanding of what a teacher is lecturing on because it gives visual learners something to see and put two and two together. Helping students understand, I believe, is one of the largest influences for teachers to use technology in the classroom. It also allows for teachers to relay more information because the teacher does not need to take the time to write everything on a board. If it is on a PowerPoint, the teacher can stay on track and get as much information to the students in an organized manner. There are many benefits to using technology in the classroom, as long as it is not abused by students.

The standards that were discussed were very broad, but comprehensive. I think it covered everything a student should gain from technology and how the school system as well as teachers need to strive to teach. The one that stuck out to me was being an empowered learner. When I was a kid my mom would always talk about how it would take me ten times longer to find anything because she had to go through the encyclopedia. Technology is allowing students to be more empowered by having information readily available and in many different forms in order to adapt to any kind of learning style. I think generations raised with technology have the ability to learn so much and be empowered by that knowledge, we just have to want to learn it.

I have mixed feelings about being a "digital native." To clarify, a digital native is a person who was raised with technology and doesn't generally know life without it. On one hand, many people apart of the youngest generation were raised with some sort of technology, whether it be a computer or phone. By that, I would most definitely say that the youth of today are in fact digital natives. However, there comes an expectation when that title is placed on a person. Older generations expect young people to automatically know how to work every aspect of a computer, even if we haven't learned it. Just because I have been around technology my whole life, does not make me an expert at it. Some people only use technology for google and social media, but since we have been around technology our whole life, older people expect us to be professionals at excel and Photoshop, for example. In high school, it was very apparent the differences between myself and teachers. They would have a difficult time doing things that I thought were basic, like turning on the DVD player. In college, however, I feel like there is a very small gap, and in many cases I don't feel as though there is a gap. Teachers use technology that I did not know was even possible. I had a teacher that recorded everything he did on his computer and everything he said and put it on blackboard within an hour after class was released. It was amazing to be able to relive the lecture in case I missed something the first time. I think in the future, the education teachers have with technology will be a large part of training. It is so crucial to a classroom and I think it has helped many students, so being able to use technology will be something in the training of becoming a teacher. Continuing to grow and learn from the students, in my opinion, will be absolutely crucial.

Twitter Handle

@JadeMcGrath16

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My prior experiences with technology is fairly basic. I grew up with a computer in my house but I rarely used it for anything productive; it was usually to play Sims for a little while after school if I'm being honest. In high school I really liked one of the computers teachers, so I took three computers classes since he was the one teaching them. The problem was that he was also the football coach and since I understood football, he would never really expect me to do anything on the computer, and we mainly talked about our football team and ways to improve our team. He called me his TA so I would also grade other students work, but never really understand how they got their end product. When I did do work in that class, it was mainly with word, so I would say I am at about a 6 or a 7 computer literacy with regards to word. Other than that and how to work an Iphone, I would say my computer literacy rate is at about a 3.

I hope to gain a deeper understanding of what everyone expects millennials to know about a computer. My friends always call me a grandma because it takes me ten times longer to do a basic thing on the computer just because I don't know how and never really had the interest to take the time to learn. For example, for one of my classes we had to create a video that had a PowerPoint in it. Making the powerpoint and doing all of the research took me about an hour, but converting it to a video with sound took me about 6 hours! So I am hoping to gain an understanding of basic computer operations and things that I will need to know when I graduate and go into the workforce, where no one will be willing to hold your hand and teach you how to operate a computer.

When I was taking the learning styles questionnaire, I basically knew the results I would receive. I have always been an active and visual learner. I do best when someone clearly explains their expectations and allows for group collaboration. I am the type of person that enjoys bouncing ideas off of other people and hearing what other people's ideas for a solution is, rather than just being stuck with the one or two ideas I have. I also expected to see I had a high score for being a sequential learner. I follow steps in order to get to a solution, rather than just hoping that I will eventually get it. I honestly was not surprised by any of the results I received but it is reassuring to know how to adjust to people who are not like me and understand where they are coming from.