Blog Post 2: ISTE Standards and Digital Natives
Technology has become a large part of the classroom today. As more students are surrounded by technology in their personal lives, teachers have needed to find ways to incorporate some of this technology into their learning in order to encourage participation and understanding. Besides keeping the interest of students, technology has made many tasks simply easier. It makes sense to utilize tech in the classroom that is able to do more than one job. An example of this would be Smart Boards, which act as a whiteboard, projector, and computer all in one.
The ISTE standards are prevalent in today's world due the continuing expansion of technology. It is important to have these standards in place so that educators can correctly navigate how to incorporate technology into the classroom. The standard that holds the most meaning for me in my life currently is under the Student Standards. It is 3b, which states, "Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of information, media, data or other resources." As a student myself, this is a standard I regularly do, both in school as well as out of school. I think this is an extremely important standard to follow because social media tends to dramatize news and blow situations out of proportion. It is a vital skill to learn how to discern between reliable and unreliable sources. The Computer Science Standard, however, is something that is almost completely out of my skill set. Specifically, the whole of standard 4, which states, "Computer Science Educators demonstrate professional knowledge and skills in their field and readiness to apply them." I am in no way a professional when it comes to technology and do not have the knowledge to to apply technological skills.
I do agree with the title of "digital native" for today's youth. To be a digital native means that you are born in the digital age and have grown up surrounded by more modern technology. There is a very clear difference between how a digital native (such as myself) and digital immigrants (such as most of my teachers) interact with technology. Digital natives tend to be able to figure out most technologies without much difficulty by messing with the tech and making connections between the new thing they are trying to learn and something similar they are already familiar with. Digital immigrants however, do not seem to have something familiar to compare the new tech to nor do they seem comfortable messing with the object, so it tends to take them longer to figure out and most times, they have help in learning it. In my personal learning experience, there have been several times that myself or classmates have had to help a teacher figure out how to use a piece of tech they are trying to utilize for class. I do not see this being as much of an issue when I am a teacher. There may be times when I am not positive on how something works, since the digital world is always changing and expanding, but since I am a digital native, it is more likely that I will be able to figure it out from past experience with different technologies.
The ISTE standards are prevalent in today's world due the continuing expansion of technology. It is important to have these standards in place so that educators can correctly navigate how to incorporate technology into the classroom. The standard that holds the most meaning for me in my life currently is under the Student Standards. It is 3b, which states, "Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of information, media, data or other resources." As a student myself, this is a standard I regularly do, both in school as well as out of school. I think this is an extremely important standard to follow because social media tends to dramatize news and blow situations out of proportion. It is a vital skill to learn how to discern between reliable and unreliable sources. The Computer Science Standard, however, is something that is almost completely out of my skill set. Specifically, the whole of standard 4, which states, "Computer Science Educators demonstrate professional knowledge and skills in their field and readiness to apply them." I am in no way a professional when it comes to technology and do not have the knowledge to to apply technological skills.
I do agree with the title of "digital native" for today's youth. To be a digital native means that you are born in the digital age and have grown up surrounded by more modern technology. There is a very clear difference between how a digital native (such as myself) and digital immigrants (such as most of my teachers) interact with technology. Digital natives tend to be able to figure out most technologies without much difficulty by messing with the tech and making connections between the new thing they are trying to learn and something similar they are already familiar with. Digital immigrants however, do not seem to have something familiar to compare the new tech to nor do they seem comfortable messing with the object, so it tends to take them longer to figure out and most times, they have help in learning it. In my personal learning experience, there have been several times that myself or classmates have had to help a teacher figure out how to use a piece of tech they are trying to utilize for class. I do not see this being as much of an issue when I am a teacher. There may be times when I am not positive on how something works, since the digital world is always changing and expanding, but since I am a digital native, it is more likely that I will be able to figure it out from past experience with different technologies.
I totally agree in saying that teachers need to stay up to date. I know I grew up with smart boards in my classrooms and think they were super helpful with the teachers that were actually devoted to learning how to use and incorporate them. I agree with your statement on digital natives and immigrants, but would have to disagree in saying that I think there is a very thin line between who is in the realm of digital natives. We fit the definition, but I think there are kids just a generation or two below us who fit the term digital native 100 times more than we do. I've had a few teachers struggle the way you described, but I have had many more teachers who have actually taught me a thing or two.
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