Blog One: Digital Natives and a Discussion of Technology in the Classroom

What really influences students and teachers to use technology in the classroom?

For teachers, I think it's a hope of engagement. Of wanting to catch a students attention, or keep them interacting with the lesson through games. Since I was in elementary school, teachers have always used videos like BrainPop to assist in teaching the lesson. They were eye-catching, often funny, and a medium my classmates and I were familiar with, as I was in elementary school when Youtube just started to take off. I remember a lot of the videos to this day, and even a lot of the things they taught me. These videos are often frowned upon by "old school" teachers, but personally, I think children (especially these days) are much more likely to retain information when it is presented in such a consumable and entertaining way. Students like using technology in the classroom because it really is familiar to them. There are students in elementary school now who weren't alive before the creation of iPhones and other smart devices.

I think teachers can also use technology as a "brain break" or a reward for students. I observed in a pre-school class for children with autism. These children spend a lot of the day not in instruction, but rotating through two on one therapies: whether it was speech, or Applied Behavioral. While waiting for their turn with the teacher and the therapist, students completed small tasks that helped further their development. When they were done with that task and with therapies, they were rewarded with a choice between free play and tablet time. They were allowed to play educational games on the tablet as a reward for their good work, and to give their brain time to rest and relax before the next task.

ISTE Standards: Which standards do you connect with and want to work on as an educator?

ISTE standards are goals for students and educators that involve technology. The overall mission of ISTE is to help students become more empowered learners. I really love the leader goal. This was taken from the ISTE website:

"Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning."

This standard talks about being an advocate for technology in the classroom, helping your fellow teachers come up with ways to incorporate technology in the classroom, and most importantly: advocate for diverse students and ways to help them learn. As a future exceptional student education teacher, advocating for diverse students is my passion and strong suit. Technology in the classroom is great fro students of all abilities, and can help students with challenges in their educational journeys. There are even students who rely on technology to communicate, and I think that is a pretty cool thing.

The final standard for educators on the ISTE is called "Analyst", and it talks about effectively designing lessons for students that involve technology and empower students. I don't think I'm quite there yet. I have to spend time really thinking about what I want technology to do for my students and how I can achieve that. I also want to widen my horizons as far as my ideas on what technologies can be used.

Digital Natives

I think the term "Digital Natives" is a accurate term for my generation. We have been alive through the growth of technology, sometimes learning and growing with it. This is in contrast to our parents, who didn't interact with technology until adulthood. I also think there is a slight difference between my generation and the most recent, as there are 4 year olds who can work a tablet better than I could! Teachers when I was in school, or "digital immigrants", were never quite good at working projectors, or the computers in the classroom. It really didn't affect my learning, but I always found it entertaining, especially when there was always that one student that would go up and help. The rising generation of teachers will find navigating technology in their lessons and classrooms much easier.