Blog Post 1

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.