Blog 1, Digital Natives and Classrrom Tech

       Computers are the key component to having a technologically sound classroom and overall learning experience. Just about her classroom today has at least one computer in it, usually for the teacher's use only. But it is becoming more and more important to allow students to also take advantage of this resource. The importance of computers in the classroom is increasing daily. It is not only getting to understand the computers and their many programs for the use of the classroom, but these skills will carry over into the real world. Almost every job today uses a computer in some way. Having this resource in the classroom allows for the students to familiarize themselves with it early, and increase their technology literacy. Some concerns may arise with the educators, such as not being able to allot time to integrate technology into the classroom, and having their schools budget finances for technology. These issues are very real in that, every teacher today must deal with these modern conflicts. Some schools are technologically behind because they cannot allot the time and money to gain the resources needed for their students to learn these tools.
      I think technology is very important in classrooms, and can be especially helpful when doing class projects. In my classroom, I will integrate technology in a way that lets students learn how to use the computers and the programs they have to offer. For example, I could have them learn about PowerPoint by making a fun slide show of their favorite animal. I could also use Microsoft Word as a tool to teach note taking, or spreadsheets could be used to introduce the concept of a graph. I hope in this class I learn how to not only understand these tools myself, but be able to incorporate them into a lesson in my future classroom.
      A "digital native" usually refers to the youth who have grown up with technology around them. I agree with this label, and think it is important to realize digital natives know no other way than the present day technology. I have been in classes before where teachers were not accustomed to using technology in their everyday lives, therefore their classrooms lacked it as well. Classes like these were lecture hall classes where the teacher would put nothing on the board, and drone on for the allotted class time. This shows how "digital immigrants" can sometimes, not always, miss the purpose of technology in the classroom. I have also, however, been in a class where the teacher was a "digital immigrant", but used technology to teach daily. That class was a BYOT class, or bring your own technology, where we would conduct our research for class on our phones or iPads. I feel it is better to integrate technology for learning, since us "digital natives" are already using it anyway for pleasure. I think there will always be differences in the generation gap of teacher and student, but I doubt any from now on would be as harsh as the one today, seeing as some older teachers today have grown up watching technology flourish, but not knowing how to use it.