1 Our Generation to the Next

I believe computers are an important role in teaching because technology is taking over. Nowadays, teachers are expected to take courses and pass tests to keep up with the standards of teaching. Technology components are even incorporated into the common core standards. With all the resources and help available to teachers, there shouldn’t be a reason why educators should have less knowledge than anyone else.

Most presentations, for any topic or subject are given via computer or projector. When I have my own classroom of eager-to-learn kiddies I will use presentation applications to keep them engaged. Some of these include prezi, wordle, and photo story. In this technology class I hope to learn how to make and give a presentation to keep the audience engaged and listening for an extended amount of time, no matter their age.

The term digital native does fit my generation. Everyone born within the last 25-30 years knows what a computer is and is most likely tech savvy and knowledgeable on how to work one. The difference between a native and immigrant is, we grew up with a computer while the older generation chose whether or not to conform to this type of lifestyle.

Personally, neither set of my grandparents own a computer. They believe since they’ve made it this far in their lives, nothing new needs to be added for confusion. Whenever I go to visit them and we have conversations about social media their response is usually something like, “Back in my day we didn’t have any of these picture sites, we clicked our Polaroid button and the picture was instantly in my hand.”

The futures of students will definitely be different. When I went through grade school, we used vis-à-vis markers and an overhead and thought it was the coolest thing ever that we were able to write on a plastic sheet. Today, these children are taking notes from a power point and sometimes even interacting with the presentation using clickers.