Blog Post 2: Week 2

Students and teachers may be influenced by many different reasons to use technology in the classroom. Oftentimes, it is a tool provided by the school to supplement and enhance learning. Technology, in this case, is beneficial for both the teacher and the student and is used because it is already provided. Other cases in which teachers may be influenced to use technology in the classroom are that it can make giving lessons easier. Lessons that are given by way of, for example, Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi or other similar tools are presented via computer and sometimes projectors. Using this type of technology may enable a teacher to be more interactive with their students while presenting a lesson. On the other hand, students may be influenced to use technology in the classroom to enhance the way that they learn. Students can use Apps and websites like Quizlet, Notability, and Khan Academy to strengthen study and note-taking skills.

The ISTE Standards for Students were created to empower student-driven learning and in relation to technology use in the classroom. One ISTE Standard that resonates with me is the Creative Communicator, specifically, "students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions". This standard is one in which I have personally lived in most of my classes. I used this standard a lot during my Conditioning and Learning Lab last semester, using technology like a Skinner Box to investigate theories of conditioning and habituation. On the other hand, one ITSE Standard for Students that is outside my current skill-set is the Computational Thinker: "students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions". Automation is a newer concept to me that I have yet to thoroughly investigate in an educational setting.

A "digital native" can be described as a young person who understands and utilizes technology frequently. Typically, digital natives are people who are raised in a time in which digital technology is prevalent. Thus, their ability to use and understand it is greater than that of people who were not born during the same time. I have noticed many differences between myself and my teachers in terms of technology, one of the most common being that teachers do not understand how to work the computers or programs they are told to use in the classroom. Oftentimes my older teachers will not understand how to work the computer itself, for example, the volume controls or exiting out of open tabs. Other times, they will not understand how to use programs like PowerPoint. My learning experience has never been severely impacted by this difference, as I have always elected to use technology in the classroom at my own discretion and understand that "digital immigrants" may need extra time to learn and understand the technology they are using. I do anticipate technology use differences in the future between myself and my students because, by the time I am able to teach, the technology in use will be vastly different than what is popular now, thus making me a digital immigrant rather than a digital native.