Did+You+Know

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Being a "Digital Native," as defined by the "Teaching Digital Natives" slideshow, I completely agree with everything being stated. Education's perspective is far behind where the students are in society. I feel being a "Digital Native" helps me in my teaching methods. Students love the technology I incorporate into my lessons and love every second that they get to use technology. They thrive off of doing multiple things at once and can still focus on the lesson. It is unrealistic to have students just sit for a long period of time listening to a lecture. They learn best when they make it personal and are actively involved in the learning taking place. The scope of content also needs to be adjusted for the students needs and wants. School systems need to look at incorporating text messages, e-mails, blogs, podcasts, discussion boards, etc into the learning environment to keep students engaged. It is astonishing how much technology has changed in the past few years since the "Did you Know" video was created. Technology is multiplying at an incredible rate and it is often hard to keep up with HOW much is truly changing. This is why our students are not learning in the same manner. It reinforces society saying that the old ways of paper-and-pencil assignments are over. Students want to use what is "fun" to them and it is easy to incorporate technology into the classroom--the teacher just needs to be open to new ways of teaching. I feel it is easier for new teachers/younger generations to incorporate technology because it is the life we live;it is involved in everything we do, whereas older generations are not as open to incorporating technology because it is more difficult for them to adjust to. Using technology requires you to change your teaching style and you must be able to adapt to new ways of teaching the curriculum.