THE NEW GENERATION TEACHERS
- vidaljolina8
- Jan 24, 2024
- 2 min read
Welcome to my 2nd BLOG!
What influences teachers and students to use technology in the classroom?
We are now in Generation Alpha, meaning most people (especially students) are internet freaks. The survey says that "80% of parents with a child age 5 to 11 say their child uses or interacts with a tablet computer, compared with 64% of parents with a child age 3 to 4 who do this and 35% with a child or a child age 2 or younger" (Pew Research Center). Since kids are exposed to technology at a young age, they feel comfortable and convenient tailoring technology to their learning. Technology allows students and teachers to maximize their learning/lesson plan resources. This presents various platforms where they can collaborate efforts with their co-students/co-teachers to share ideas and gain connections.
Today's youth as "digital natives"
I'm afraid I have to disagree that today's youth should be labeled as digital natives because the digitalized world started in the 90's. It would discredit the first people who should be labeled as "digital natives." Though the youth today grew up in a digitalized world, which made them fluent in technology, I would rather say they should be labeled as tech-savvy. A person who grew up in the information age or with digital technology is known as a digital native. Growing up surrounded by technology, digital natives are at ease and proficient with technology.
In my own experience as a digital native, I have seen some differences between us and the digital immigrants (our teachers). One of my professors hates technology and didn't effectively use the canvas to lay out his expectations. Most of us struggled to understand his expectations and objectives in the course.
Since the world is evolving, I would anticipate that the technology would also thrive. Today's technology is different from the future, but I think I will have a great foundation in technological resources that I can use in the future, too.
Very interesting perspective and good insights on the term of digital natives. I personally think that kids born today can be digital natives because they are growing up in an era of technology. Just as if a person was born in America then they had a child that was also born in America. They would both be Americans, even though they were born in different time periods of America. But I do see your reasoning and rationale of why they are not the original digital natives, I definitely think there should be different generational categories of what a digital native is. Again, very good insights!
Thanks for sharing about the professor who didn't use technology (specifically Canvas) effectively. It's good to consider how his shortcomings in technology negatively affected the students. As we become teachers, it is important that we learn from the good and the bad that we experience from our teachers.