Digital Natives

Technology seems to engage everyone from young children to adults. It is found in pretty much every facet of our lives from video games to computer programs used in a variety of careers. However, it seems that technology is not being represented in education the way that would help students get the most out of its use in the classroom. The two videos “Digital Youth Portrait: Sam” and “Schools Use of Games for Learning and Assessment” portray how important contemporary technology is in the lives of students, and how schools need to become more proficient with the way that they include it into their daily structure in order to prepare their students for the future. These videos showed how students had to comprehend the material they were learning as well as being creative and thinking critically during the process of using contemporary technology.

Students are being engaged through television, computers, i-pods and cell phones at home, why not bring these parts of their lives into the classroom and spark some interest in the content they need to learn. I feel that the types of technology that were mentioned in the videos would defiantly get students motivated to participate in lessons and actually want to learn. The school I work at provides numerous opportunities for me to use technology in my classroom and I find that students tend to participate more and even enjoy what is being taught.

The text also describes a variety of computer programs that offer differentiated instruction to students from drill and practice software, simulation software, problem-solving software and many more types of programs. Each of these types of software offers a variety of ways for a student to learn and become interested in what is being taught in the classroom.

I feel that when you are incorporating technology into the classroom, you are giving students opportunities to build skills for the future as well as becoming motivated to learn. They become interested in what can normally be something they would consider boring and a waste of time and be able to make a connection to their personal lives. Some pitfalls with technology is that it takes time to introduce some of the programs to students and there could be issues with technology where it freezes or the program is not running correctly, which could waste some valuable class time.