Throughout all of my schooling so far, it was the most recent years, high school, that I started using electronics in the classroom. In high school, we really only used Google products: Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides. These are the tools that I feel the most comfortable using because these are the tools I learned on and grew up with. Now that I am having to use Microsoft Word, it might take me a while to get a hang of the layout of the program. I feel like it should not be that different, it all serves for the same purpose, to write. This class will be my first time using Microsoft and I am excited to venture onto new programs to better me as a student and a future educator.
The ISTE has a list of standards for educators when it comes to technology. While reading through them I think my favorite one is educators and technology design. In this standard, they suggest that educators use new technology to create games and educational ways to teach in all different environments suitable for each student. I think this is one of the most important aspects in using technology in the classroom, because teachers can create new educational games that help teach them while having fun. This might encourage students that school isn't all about boring work, it can be fun and want them to keep learning. I have noticed a lot of students have gotten "burned out" from the traditional way of learning, and by teachers implementing new technology, this could help the way kids learn and keep them engaged in the classroom.
The term digital native, in my opinion, is a great way in explaining the divide in the population of people who were born with technology and the people who learned it when it first came out. A digital native is a person who was born growing up with technology and using it in their daily lives. A digital immigrant is a person who had to learn technology and was not accustomed to it in their youth. There is a difference between how my teachers and who I have used technology. My teachers, especially if they have been teaching for a while, are not so used to the technology and the different programs being used. My mother, for example, has been trying to use the new technology in her classroom, like Google Slides for classroom presentations. She is in constant need of help to figure out how to work all of these programs, whereas I, a digital native, can help her because I am used to all of these tools. I feel like this has been a learning curve for both students and teachers because as they are teaching us our school subjects, we are teaching them to use technology. In the future, I feel like we will be repeating this, the cycle of our students teaching the educators some sort of new technology, because there is always something new. I will be on top of the technological curve when I become a teacher in hopes to stay on the same path as my students.
Hey Ashlyn! For me it was the opposite about using Word and Google Docs. In school we used word instead of google docs which I thought was normal until I started reading these posts. I did not know about google docs until recently so I find it interesting that people used it more instead of word. Do you find word more complicated than google docs?
ReplyDeleteI do find word more complicated, I think that is just because I have never used it before and I am not used to the format.
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