Teachers are influenced to use technology to not only make the material interesting and fun, but also to make the classroom more efficient and run way more smoothly. Students have grown up with technology and in order to make the classroom more fun and relatable to the students technology must be used. Students want to use technology to make their studies interesting and increase productivity.
The ISTE has created 5 sets of standards for students, teachers, educational learners, technology coaches, and computer science educators. I looked at the set of standards for students and the standard that resonated with me the most was Innovative Designer which was defined as, "Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions." This meant a lot to me because I consider myself a creative person, with or without technology, and as a former yearbook editor I had to step out of my comfort zone and become creative in more and more forms of technology. The standard that seems out of my skill set would be Global Collaborator. It seems out of my skill set because I know how to use technology but I am not great at figuring out ways to collaborate in a group setting and proficiently use technology in a more broad sense.
I think the term Digital Native is accurate when it comes to describing the students of today. They grew up using technology and that is the world they are accustomed to. I see students using technology for more personal reasons and are more prone to explore more into technology than teachers who mostly use technology for work and class and hardly anything else. If a teacher is not proficient in the technology it shows in class and can somewhat inhibit the student's learning experience. The major difference I might see between me and my future students would have to be new programs that get created and that I would fall behind in the new upcoming technology but as a Digital Native it does not concern me that much.
I notice that many people find it hard to collaborate with other in a group, because we are so used to solve problems on our own and grouping with others just seems to be waste of time and energy. However, being a collaborator today does not mean to work with others on everything. Instead, it means to harness the power of group work via online technologies. Group work is not always only about get-things-done, but also about inspiring ideas, supporting each other, and aggregating everyone's expertise.
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