Digital Native
I feel that I am more of a digitally naturlaized citizen than an immigrant. I have been around technology more than most of the professionals I work with. I still have trouble integrating these skills into my curriculum. I can see where students of today are more focused on playing games than learning from reading text. However, I still read books that are made from trees and I was raised on Nintendo and television.
I find the largest problem in the companies that publish educational materials. These are the projects that our top technical professionals should be engaging in. Helping to engage the next generation of learners will be more difficult if we are delayed by personal technical savy. I have tried some of the digital programs that are offered in our building, Compass, etc. and always left feeling that it is more trouble than it is worth. After all the time you have dumped into it, it seems like a waste of time.
I feel the internet has revolutionized researching topics most of all. With very limited technical abilities, one can still find most anything that you could ever hope to find in a traditional library. This is the most revolutionary advancement that I have personally witnessed. The internet can reference any topic that may be assigned to a student.
When designing software for students, educators need to have to avenues to influence the content of these programs. Instead of teaching what is availible on software, one could design the program around what is deemed important to the state superintendant. With all of the money flying around in educational budgets, why is it so slow to trickle down to the ones who need the most? I am talking about teachers. Through in-service training teachers could be made more aware of the technology availible to them. I have had only a few hours training with any of the software they want us to use with our students. I think I have only spent about two hours training of my two years of teaching on Compass. If teachers were more confident, they would feel better about backing these sorts of programs.
Blogs have recently become more open to me. I use Myspace to keep up on what my friends are doing in their lives. In a few minutes, I can check if anyone in my friend listhas posted a new blog. I can quickly rewiew these and read any at my leisure. I see blogs replacing journals in the classroom in the next few years. I have opened my eyes to the possibility of keeping a blog going after this class.
