Blog Journal 1

Blog Journal 1

Teachers and students alike have become reliant on the benefits of using technology in the classroom. It allows the teacher give the students independence in class to complete their own assignments. This will therefore cause the student to feel more accomplished and grow their self-esteem of their academic work. While the students are learning to solve their own problems and collaborate with their peers in a responsible and appropriate manner, the teacher is able to facilitate the learning environment and even learn a thing or two from their students while doing it.

ISTE educator standards should be general standards for teachers in all aspects of their job, not just in the technology portion. The interaction from teacher to student should always be a learning engagement. There is so much a teacher can learn from his/her students on a daily basis. The standard of Collaborator is an important one to me because being able to collaborate with your students and understand what they want from a course provides them with an understanding that you value their opinion and respect them as a human being. Many teachers forget this idea and simply talk to their students instead of engaging in a conversation about the course. Helping my future students to be good technological citizens is going to be the most difficult standard for me to meet with my current skillset. The way people behave online and the information they share has changed immensely from when I first started out learning about technology in elementary school. I want to be sure that I give my students the correct information to navigate the internet safely and without harm.

            I agree with some of the essential ideas of the label “digital native”, yet I don’t agree with some of the stigmas that have come to surround the idea. I know plenty of people who have been born to be “digital natives” that read, can be focus on things for a long period of time, and who learn best in a “traditional” classroom setting. These seemingly generic biases don’t fit people as individuals and glaze over the fact that many people learn differently from one another. This is a key factor in how a teacher conducts a class and should not forget this. Our “digital immigrant” teachers tend to struggle when the pieces of technology that we have become to rely on to present a lesson to a class fail. They fumble around for ages trying to regain their footing and, in my cases, tend to end up asking students for help. In a matter of second the problem is resolved and they are able to return to their lesson with a large time chunk removed from their instruction. I foresee this issue always being around as every day new digital natives are being born to an age of new technological advances that educators will always be trying to keep up to trend with.