Blog 1

• What influences teachers and students to use technology in the classroom?
• Teaching has gone from students having to listen to the teacher at the front of the classroom and playing a very passive role in learning to a very hands-on, active role in learning. Teachers can allow students to be interactive while they are teaching and use technology as a way to keep students engaged while they are teaching. Teachers also can be influenced to use technology in the classroom by those around them. As new and younger teachers and administrators come in, the use of technology will increase not only in the classroom but how information and communication happens. 
• A paragraph in which you reflect on the ISTE standards. Specifically, cite 1 standard that is meaningful to you and 1 that seems outside your current skill set. (include an explanation).
• One standard that I see as meaningful would be the Global Collaborator. Global collaborator, according to the ISTE website (n.d.), is the “students use (of) digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.” I would say this is meaningful to me because it is important for students to learn what is happening outside of their community. As it is important for students to be aware of what is happening around them, it is also important to know and see the differences in other places. Standards that would currently fall outside of my skill set would be “innovative designer”. This standard is listed on the ISTE (n.d.) website as being “ students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions”. I would say that this is not in my current skill set because developing a way for students to be innovative about their studies and not outside studies is difficult to control. Learning to focus on students while also being innovative can be and challenging.
• A paragraph on whether or not you agree with the label “digital native” for today's youth. What does it mean to be a digital native? Have you seen differences between how you (digital native) and most of your teachers (digital immigrants) use technology? If so, describe them and what their impact has been on your learning experience. What difference do you anticipate between you and your future students in terms of how you use technology?
• I do agree with the term digital native because it explains the difference between a generation that has been raised around computers and the internet, which has allowed them to have a better understanding of how to use them and those in the generation that raised before the increased use in computers and the internet. The difference between a digital native and a digital immigrant can be seen daily. These differences, for example, can be how someone sends an email, how someone uses texts on their phone, or just how often they use technology in the classroom. These differences can impact the learning experience because it changes how students and teachers communicate as well as how a student is expected to learn in the classroom. For a student that is in a class with a digital native teacher, they will have better communication with them by email, phone, and have a more interactive learning process. This would be compared to a student in a digital immigrant class how may not be accessible through email or phone and may have a very passive approach to teaching in the classroom. Seeing that technology is constantly advancing, the difference between my future students and I may be similar to or more separate than the relationships between students and teachers today. It would be important to notice these changes over time and be open to learning about the new ways in which to communicate and teach students.