Digital Badge # A: Chapter 1.

Teaching in the new era

I am the daughter of first generation immigrants; as so, my family’s previous generation all grew up in Colombia. As I was reading transforming learning with new technologies I had the opportunity to talk to my grandma and she told me; back in her time the only technology they had was a radio and it only worked at night time, which was when they turned the town’s electricity on. My mother grew up with electricity, radio and line phones, she eventually learned to use computers as an adult and worked at the airport utilizing her computer skills. I grew up with the television and as a teenager used the computer to write papers for school; I barely used the internet. Now I used the internet on a daily basis, text all day and take online classes. All of this is a contrast to my son who thinks everything is touch screen and at a seconds reach, if he wants to watch a video or if he wants to play, he will get the tablet or phone and find what he wants on his own and he is only two years old. My son is part of the digital childhood, something that surprised me was that it was estimated that in 2015 there will be 10 billion 1.1 tech tools, more than the world population 7.5 billion (trasforming learning with new technologies,2013), and still there are kids in the world dying of hunger. I work at a high school and as I see every day, teenagers use their phone constantly while they are eating, while going from one class to another and even when they are in classroom doing their assignments. Technology is embedded in our brains and as a 2014 teacher I believe it would be easy for us to transition student into learning provided by technology tools. Students are experts with technology and if we can give them new concepts in a fun and interesting way they would surely be more receptive to all the new material.

As an online student I constantly browse the web for anything that I need to do and don’t know how to do it. 21^st century technology enables students to be more independent, since a classroom student only gets to ask a question every 10 hours, they can search anything that they had a hard time understanding in class on the web; it could be a smartphone, tablet or laptop. As future teachers we have many technology aids that allows us to be better educators, the knowledge in the subject along with our pedagogical studies will allow us to integrate technology and as a result students will be able to use their everyday abilities to learn many concepts that at times are really hard for students to digest.

For me technological teaching tools are an everyday concept, I work with special needs kids and the way they learn is mostly with technologies. I have seen the immense progress that some of this kids have and how they are able to solve problems like sorting, cause and effect events and basic math problems all with lessons that are engaging and set for each of their own developmental ages. After you model for them what needs to be done on the screen they are able to follow, expand and sometimes go beyond what was taught and all because technology allows them to be independent and be able to communicate with the teacher. As an ESE teacher I would see the constant need to develop new apps and lessons that allow the students to perform everyday activities more independently.

As I remember my k-12 education, I find mix feelings and insist that some old educational instruments are still relevant. I personally like the smell of books and enjoy reading a paper book rather than an e-book. The interaction that I got from my face time classes was very enjoyable and I am an interactive learner, I like to integrate a little of everything plus hearing other people’s point of view makes me more receptive to new concepts. As I find my digital identity and set my learning goals for students I think I will have fun using technology as a means of acquiring concepts.

 

Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.