Blog Post #2

     Throughout the course of my academic career, I have very infrequently used MS Word. In elementary, middle, and high school, Google Docs was the main word processing platform I used. After obtaining a Macbook my senior year of high school, I began to transition to Pages as my preferred word processing platform. I personally prefer Pages over Google Docs and MS Word because it does not require a Wi-fi connection to access and edit documents. I find it much more convenient to not have to rely on a stable Wi-fi connection to count on my documents to save changes, as opposed to Google Docs. I am very unfamiliar with MS Word, so I cannot properly attest to its pros and cons.

    

    One of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)'s Standards for Educators includes Standard 2.1: Learner. This standard encourages teachers to continue to expand their knowledge to better their abilities as an educator. To do this, the three ways that the standard highlights are setting professional goals, participate in personal learning networks (PLNs), and keeping current on research. While these ideas are familiar due to my experiences in my previous education classes, I believe that it is a very important reminder for educators. Even if you are an educator, there is always more to learn and ways to improve. Networking with other professionals and reading up on new research findings are great ways to ensure that your students are receiving the education they deserve.

    I do agree that "digital natives" is an appropriate label for today's youth. The three main assumptions proposed by Mark Prensky can be applied to the vast majority of the younger generation. While digital immigrants knew a life before the integration of technology into society, the same cannot be said about digital natives. I, along with other digital natives, have never known a world without technology. While technological advancements have been rapid over the course of our lifetime, it has been much easier to adapt to these endless developments as a digital native. For digital immigrants, the pace in which new technologies are being introduced can be difficult for them to digest, as many are still not familiar with less recent technologies. In the past, I have witnessed my school district enact policies that required my teachers to implement new technologies into their classrooms. While some teachers utilized these technologies in their curriculum, some of my teachers struggled to do so. Teachers who were unable to integrate technology into their classroom tended to have much less engaging classes, leading to myself and many students to be generally uninterested.