The first thing that caught my attention from this chapter were the overwhelming statistics on how much time per day that students ages eight to seventeen use some sort of technology or media. The chart shows what ages use what types of technology and for how long per day. The age group that I was most shocked at was the eight year olds. When I was eight, I barely had any idea how to navigate the new cell phones, let alone a computer! It states that 80% of kindergartners use computers. Maloy, et al (2013 p4.) Seeing as I myself want to become a kindergarten teacher, I think I will incorporate fun learning activities and games and other fun learning things on a computer to engage my students and help them learn from other sources and not just from me. This video is kind of long but definitely worth the watch. It is from a series called "Kids React" and in this one they are being shown "old" computers.
Second, another thing I found interesting was the "Technology-Based Learning Environment." I think it is so cool how that even once your school day is over, you can go home and further a discussion, read scholarly articles, and read notes your teacher posted just by going on the computer. When I did observation hours for my other teaching classes, in the middle school I observed at every single one of the students checked out a laptop from their library and took it home every day. They checked it out at the beginning of the school year and turned it in at the end of the school year. I asked the teacher about it, and she said that it was a very useful thing in her classroom because she could assign them readings, homework, and fun learning activities once they went home. The students loved it as well, because they could learn on a different level, rather than just in the classroom from their teacher.
Third, one of the final things in this chapter I found interesting was the Web 2.0 tools. Whenever I used to think of the phrase "web 2.0" I always thought of some type of technology as being improved. But instead, I learned that web 2.0 tools are "highly interactive technologies that include blogs, wikis, digital media creating and sharing technologies, social networking, and social bookmarking sites." Maloy, et al (2013 p8.) I found this interesting because I actually did not know about half of the things listed as a web 2.0 tool. As a future 21st century teacher, I will need to learn these things myself to improve my future classroom, and my learning environment for my students. This article is a good read because it talks about teaching our students how to have good "digital citizenship." Teaching Digital Citizenship
In conclusion, I am excited to learn more on how to become an effective and helpful 21st century teacher. Though this was the first chapter and normally can be kind of boring, I found this one to be very interesting because it was helpful and had a lot of information to offer.
Resources:
Hertz, Mary Beth. "Teaching Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom." Edutopia. N.p., 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
"Kids React to Old Computers." Youtube. N.p., 25 May 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk>.
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
