Blog Post #2

    In middle school and junior high I used MS Word every know and then. However, in high school we had Chrome books, so we used Google Docs instead of MS Word. I prefer to use Google Docs because it is the word processing software that I am use to. I can access it on any device anywhere and it's very easy to share and communicate with. You also don't have to download Google Docs onto your computer. 

    There are 7 ISTE Standards for Educators. They include learner, leader, citizen, collaborator, designer, facilitator and analyst. The standard that seems like the most important to me is collaborator, because it allows teachers to use their resources to "collaborate" or join together. This allows them to learn so much from other educators or even co-learn with students. With the collaborator aspect there are even "collaborative tools" that help students learn in a real-world learning style, and allows them to be mindful of all different kinds of experiences. There is also collaboration of the teachers with parents/guardians which is very important in a students education. 

    A "digital native" is someone who is/was born in the day and age where technology is present. I do agree that younger people are more likely to be better at using different kinds of digital technology, however, I do not agree that it applies to whole generations. The assumptions that Prensky makes are true, most of the time. It is wrong to assume that all the people who were born in the time when internet technology already existed know how to use it better than people who were born before that time. Now, this is true for a lot of people, however, there are some younger people who don't or can't use internet and there are some older people who love to use it and are good at it. How comfortable you are with technology is based on many things, such as your location, your schools, parent's teachings, religion, and so on. Age is not the only factor.  However, in my own experiences, my younger teachers are usually a lot more comfortable with technology than my older ones. My older teachers knew how to use emails, power-points and sometimes smart boards, but the younger ones could do so much more. Their use of Twitter, responding to emails quicker, different online studying sources and other digital resources helped my learning experience. I usually expected to hear back from my older teachers a lot later when I emailed them, because they would use their computers at school, however, the younger ones would respond really quick and most likely used an app on their smartphones. I know that technology is just going to continue to grow and I fully anticipate my students knowing more and different technologies than me. The solution to this is to never stop learning. I may not be born into the new "digital native" age, however, I won't stay settled with what I know now. "Digital immigrants" are learning the ropes now and I know that I will be able to further into the future.