Digital Natigrant

When I read the word technology, I immediately become consumed with a variety of responses. Emotional and logical thoughts spill out over the idea of technology. Should I become terrified that one day we will be in a post-apocalyptic state, relying on John Connor working side by side with the California State Governator, or should I be excited at the prospect of getting lost in virtual worlds of perfect learning experience enriched by standing in the fields with red coats and yankees in a Holodeck.

Fortunately, I currently stand in a world where the technology is still fairly limited to being a tool rather than being a sentient being. As such, it is fairly simple to approach technology willfully. I have had the good fortune of growing up surrounded by the exponential growth of the technological age. In third grade, I was fording the rivers along the Oregon Trail. In eighth grade I was programming in Basic and other simple programming languages. Two years later, I watched as the world wide web was exploding its way into mainstream society, outside of just the institution of education. By my first years of college, most every student had their own personal computers and it was actually required as a part of my college degree to own and understand how to operate programs necessary for architecture. I was at the cusp of a dramatic change. As Prensky (2001) points out, "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach."

Certainly, I am not a Digital Native, as defined by Prensky (2001), I did not grow up with "the digital language of computers, video games and the internet" as all of today's youth have. I, however, do feel that computers have been a big enough part of my growing up that I am a well adapted Digital Immigrant. I am continually trying to develop my understanding of how to use computers more efficiently, and how to enlist them within my role as a teacher. This, interestingly enough, conflicts with my belief that mathematics instruction should occur without the aid of a calculator. I am looking forward to seeing how I resolve the idea of using technology, while refuting the use of a calculator.

My age puts me mostly outside of instruction that involved technology in the classroom (at a high school level), outside of one "Computers" class. For my undergraduate work, we were required to implement tools provided by computers, and took classes instructing us how to use these tools. However, I have not successfully experience instruction which used technology to help educate. I look forward to learning ways in which this can be done. As Prensky (2001) points out, "Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task." I believe technology in the classroom will assist in this new nature of learning that has evolved with the introduction of computers. I had not thought of the point brought up in the video Pay Attention - Final Cut that the average college graduate has sent and received over 200,000 messages. That "sure seems like a lot of time spent with the 3 R's!"

It is on my responsibility alone, that I must take the initiative to be as "Native" to technology as I can be. As Prensky (2005) explains, "Even if you are the most engaging old-style teacher in the world, you are not going to capture most students' attention the old way." I feel excited to be finally entering teaching, but I am a little nervous about being a front runner to digital teaching. I can't define how I will incorporate it yet, as I have yet to understand completely what is available for my use. I suspect that as I develop my curriculum, I will work to continually find ways to implement and include technology within my lesson preparation.


RESOURCES:

Prensky, Marc (2001), Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants-- a New Way To Look At Ourselves and Our Kids

Prensky, Marc (2005), Engage Me or Enrage Me -- What Today's Learners Demand (in Educause Review, Sept./Oct. 2005)