Blog #2: Digital Native?

I believe teachers are motivated to use technology in the classroom to be able to meet the individual needs of the students better. Technology comes in so many shapes and sizes and formats that a teacher can find or adapt a program that will fit all learning styles and all skill levels. I believe it makes their job easier as well because they need to bring less equipment to class but are still able to provide a variety of learning tasks and activities for their students. I believe most students would opt for an interactive game over a lecture any day. Students are all different, but pretty much everyone is drawn more towards colorful, moving screens than towards a lecturer and their whiteboard.

Like most labels, "digital native" is a generalization for today's youth, so of course there are exceptions. If we are looking at the majority of youth in North America, they definitely do portray at least some of the characteristics that describe a digital native- they have grown up with devices and depend a lot on them, they are more impatient and have shorter attention spans, they are great multitaskers, and they are intuitive learners, among other things. I fall into this category whereas many of my teachers would instead be considered "digital immigrants", having not grown up surrounded by all of this technology. Depending on the teacher, I have seen some who are reluctant to embrace all of the digital opportunities available while others are ready to try out new sites and methods and have taught me plenty about technology use. I hope in the future as technology continues to develop, I will fall into the second category of teachers.