Digital Blog Post #A - Chapter 1

Photo Credit to San Jose Library found on Flickr

This will be the first of many post that will be covering teaching through the use of technology. The majority of information discussed will be coming from the book Transforming Learning with New Technologies : Second Edition. Posts will typically cover one or two chapters taking topics and expanding on them. A summary with personal thoughts will be at the end of each post.

Becoming a 21st Century Teacher

The first chapter of this book is titled "Becoming a 21st Century Teacher". This chapter is just an introduction to the book but, it does provide many important topics that open the door to using new techniques to teach students.

Technology has never before been so accessible like it is today. It is also faster than ever before and used for just about everything from things like communication, navigation, entertainment and even medicine. All of these things would seem quite dull and some would be impossible without the help of technology, so why is it not more involved in our schools today? An argument might be that many great minds have come from the traditional ways of teaching so why fix something that isn't broken, but using technology as a tool to teach students is not "fixing" rather, it is adapting to changing times. Teachers use different tools to achieve the same goal, they are armed with "tool belts" that allow them to engage the minds of students and technology is just the newest tool.

Here we can see just how much technology has advance in such a short time with this video.

Video Credit to FineBros found on YouTube

Three points of interest within the chapter:

1. The iGeneration
2. Technology Based Learning Environment
3. Strategies for Learning New Technologies

1.) The iGeneration consists of children that are 8 - 18 years old who have grown up using computers and social media in their daily lives. The members of this generation were born in the late 1990's and do not know a world without technology such as cell phones, text messaging, and other interactive technologies (Posnick-Godwin, 2010). With 95% of 12 - 17 year olds online and about 80% of them using social media to communicate it is difficult for some to go a day without some form of technology. Facebook and Twitter reign as the kings of social media and have appealed to more than just the iGeneration. The use for these websites goes beyond just catching up with friends but also they provide information going on all over the world. (Lenhart, Madden, Smith, Purcell, Zickur, and Rainie, 2011)
       As popular as technology and information might seem still not everyone has the same level or have them same amount of access. Studies have shown that there is a "digital divide and a technology participation gap" . Race as well family income play a part in how much access to technology a child might have. An unfortunate fact is that more white students use computers than African American and Hispanic children do. Students that are also in a home where parents are not very adept to using technology fall behind in the amount of technology they use. Although many students have limited access to technology those that do use it seem to favor it on the go. Using several forms of tech at ones like listening to music while checking on their Facebook feed.

2.) Having an environment that is rich in technology for students is important to help them feel comfortable. In the long run it will help with having a great school year because students will feel more accustomed to the technology involved lesson plans. Where students might get a little bored with assignments that require them to find information in libraries and large books a teacher could simply have them use the Internet. Even with things that seem like distractions such as phones and tablets in a classroom they can be a way to engage students by using or even creating applications.
     Another important thing to consider in a technology saturated classroom would be to make yourself readily available online. By doing so teaching does not stop when a student goes home. Yes, homework already continues teaching students once they get home but when there is an open access point for students as well as parents to reach a teacher it builds a better relationship with them. Material that was missed can be checked online and questions can be answered from virtually anywhere, the amount of time between teacher and student is greatly increased.

3.) Students from the iGeneration have a bit of an upper hand when it comes to technology. They are naturals because they've been using it all of their lives and it doesn't stop there, students seek out new technologies (which changes and updates yearly) and master them. Teachers of this generation face a problem because they must become students again by having to keep up with the latest tech to teach their students. The book Transforming Learning with New Technologies provides four ways that a teacher can stay up to date with technology.

1. Learn Technologies while Teaching Academic Content
2. Expand Your Technology Categories 
3. Create Technology Groups
4. Focus on Learning for Students and Yourself

SUMMARY

This was an interesting read, I enjoyed learning about all the statistics showing how important technology is and why it should be in schools. Also I see the value of using it to make my job easier. I intend on using technology as a tool when I'm finally a teacher.

References:
         Maloy, R. (2011). Becoming a 21st Century Teacher. In Transforming learning with new technologies (Vol. 2, pp. 3 -15). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

         KIDS REACT TO WALKMANS (Portable Cassette Players). (2014, January 1). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_vV-JRZ6E