Net Generation, the rage that should happen!

The Net generation is a rage that should happen in schools, but for the most part is not. We have students with all sorts of electronics, they bring them to school. We collect them for the day or we confiscate them if we find them. What if we turned the function of these electronics (tools) into school related tasks. The students are most engaged by these tools. I-pods, cell phones, laptops, these tools are what the students are using. These are tools that teachers need to assimilate to using. Using blogs for classroom purposes is a great way to have students work on reflection and finding metacognitive moments!

Watching the video on Moodle was a great experience for me. Kids know so much about technology, they don't understand why we don't have them use it. We try to teach the students that we want to see what they know how to do. Yet, in the classroom technology is used minimally and in some cases discouraged. Digital students are different from the older generations because they are for the most part, more advanced than the adults teaching them. Students know how to do things like create ppts, use excel and access. They probably even know there are times when using excel or access makes sense when doing a certain project, yet when they ask there are times when they are told not to use computers. These students need to be prepared because as they grow, technology will only become more important, especially when it comes time for them to find a career.

What does this mean for teachers? Teachers need to step up into the world that has podcasts, youtube, and Smart Boards in the classroom. The other implication is that technology can't be used just because it is there. The students have to see there is a purpose to the technology they are using in the classroom or it just seems like they are working to work (busy work). In short teachers need to learn technology in order to at least be at level with their students, if not take it a level up in order to stay ahead!