The Digital natives essay really surprised me. I never really thought about comparing this concept to immigrants but it definitely fits the bill. For some reason, the part that really got to me was that my generation has spent 2 times more hours playing on the internet than reading. It's sort of a shame. Not that being a digital native is a bad thing by any means but...where is this world coming too if we are pretty much completely giving up on reading and hand writing? I personally consider myself an immigrant rather than the digital native. I sort of believe that it comes from living in a family fully of "immigrants" so I never really learned a lot about computers. I can do basic functions on the computer/internet but it doesn't go much past that. Since I have fully admitted and accepted that I'm an "immigrant" the first step to teaching digital natives is taking this class. I think this class will help me be prepared to use technology in my class. The second step to teaching digital natives is to make sure that technology is used multiple times and everyday in class. Use it for lesson plans, discussion boards, tests, homework etc. Use it as much as possible because that is what the students are going to be used to. However, i still think it's important for the students to still know how to handwrite or do math without a calculator. They still need to be able to function without the technology. If for whatever reason something goes wrong and they are without these machines, then they need to be able to fend for themselves. As a teacher, we need to find a happy medium with using technology: we want to use it as much as we can but still have them able to function without it.
I'm an immigrant now but I plan on becoming a digital native in the near future for the sake of my students. I want to be just as computer savvy(if not more) as they are.
Until next time,
Melody
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Melody,
ReplyDeleteAs I read your blog, I started to think maybe I am not as much of a digital native as I thought. In my blog I wrote about being a digital native because I have a phone that I am constantly on the internet with, I twitter, and so on. When you mentioned that you come from a family of immigrants, I thought about my family. I grew up learning nothing about computers, everything I have learned is from school and friends. I don't think that I am as much of a digital native as others around me are. I feel by taking this class I will definitely improve. Plus, this blog got me thinking that everything we have done in class so far has been new to me. Like you said, I also plan on getting more computer savvy for my students. This blog was interesting, it made me think a lot about what it means to be a digital native.
Jacklyn