Week 1 - Should we integrate technology into the classroom?

A Vision of K-12 Students Today  


Technology is here to stay.   Many people are afraid of it. If as an educator you wait until you are comfortable with the technology, an opportunity will be lost.   Our students are actually neurologically wired differently than we are. And because they are wired differently than we are, they not only see, but they also interact with the world in a very different way than we do.”  (Ian Jukes) 

If we do not teach our students in a format that engages them they will not retain the information they need to become the leaders of tomorrow. Understanding the Digital Generation.  In this very interesting video clip by Ian Jukes, he brings up that 72 hours after a lecture students remember 10% of what they learned.  However if images are included in the lecture one year later students have a 63% recall rate. 

Our students are   Digital Natives.Understanding the Digital Generation.  Our students first language is Digital First Language (DFL) where Digital is my second language. (DSL)   As a future educator, the digital arena is not first for me, it is second.  For my students the use of technology will be automatic where for me as a DSL it will be something I work at including.  Consider this  Many things we as educators think of as technology is not technology to our students.  Because technology is only technology if you were born before it. (Ian Jukes)   Think for a moment of all of the things we think as technology that is not technolgy to our students.   A cell phone, a microwave, a flat screen TV, a laptop, a hand held video game, a video game attached to your TV, a GPS, a dvd player, a cd player, a digital alarm clock. (this is just a short list). 

The world our students are living in changes every day and we as educators not only need to teach them the basics skills but also how to embrace life long learning and how to collaborate with others. So yes, we need to intergrate technology into our classrooms and help our students to be Right Brain thinkers
Daniel Pinks A Whole New Mind and be prepared for the world marketplace they will live and work in.