Blog Post 1

Teachers are influenced to use technology in their classrooms in response to standards given to them on national, state, district, etc wide levels. As the world turns to a new age where technology use is ever present, more requirements to implement skills that will help students be able to compete in a tech savvy world. New teachers are even being required to have proper licensing and training in technology in order to be capable of understanding the subject themselves so they can fully help students learn about the ever coming technological advances. Students can use technology in the classrooms to even further their education and creating a more efficient classroom. For example if a teacher is busy helping another student, the rest of the class can use technology at hand to help explain and understand concepts instead of waiting around for the teacher. Technology in classrooms helps students and teachers create a more diverse learning setting.

ISTE standards are enforced in order to ensure that teachers stay on course with a foundation of what they are teaching. I feel that the standard, "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility" is most meaningful because it stresses the importance of teaching students to be courteous while online. It is easy for students to hide behind the screen and not realize how what they say and do online is permanent, so teaching them how to be responsible with this technology is very important. This standard is also meaningful to me because it highlights using technology to become more socially and culturally aware which is important in order to create a more understanding, accepting, and diverse society. The standard, "Model digital age work and learning" is out of my skill set because it discusses how the teacher should be competent with technological skills in order to teach their students and I am not the most skilled when it comes to technology usage.

I do agree with the label "digital native" on today's youth because they all did grow up with technology being present. From birth they are surrounded by it, parents throw ipads in their kids faces to entertain them or stop them from crying, and elementary school students walk around with phones and social media accounts. A digital native is someone who has grown up with technology. I have seen the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants as teachers struggle in the classroom with different technological tasks in which they have to ask a student for help or to explain how to do something. I think that my education has not been to greatly as affected by this miscommunication in technology use as students are quick to help the teachers or I can figure out how to do something on my own. I think in the future I will also need to ask my students for help with new technologies as the world continues to advance.