The Tech Generation

           Forty years ago students were still using typewriters in schools. Today, it seems like every student has their own laptop. In fact, if you asked kids younger than thirteen what a typewriter is they wouldn't be able to tell you. We are the technology generation. Hand us any electronic device and we can probably figure it out in five minutes flat. In fact, the average kid spends over 53 hours on electronic devices every week. So, why shouldn't we use those devices to our advantage to help, inspire and encourage learning in and outside of the classroom? To accomplish this, current and future educators need to become fluent in the language of technology. As a future educator myself, I thought I was fluent enough and had enough tech tools at my disposal. I was proved wrong with one class period of my Technology in Education class. Within the span of three hours, the professor was able to greatly increase my repertoire. For instance, I learned about resources like Big Huge Labs. On this website you can take pictures and use them to create trading cards, puzzles, maps, games, etc. Just playing around with the site and all it could do was sparking ideas for future lesson plans; using puzzles to teach about animals and their biology, using a trading card game where the cards are generals and weapons so that students could re-play historic battles and wars, or using maps to teach about geography. The possibilities were endless, and that was only one website. I also learned about another site, Go2Web20, that lists hundreds of apps that can be used for a variety of things and could be utilized in the classroom. One app, in particular, I really was impressed by. It turned the book, The Odyssey, into a video game where students would read and progress through each chapter while completing adventures and challenges. I loved this as it would keep students who struggle with reading engaged and promote understanding of the material. It would also be a great tool to catch students up if they had been sick or if you received a new student during the unit. There were similar apps for a whole host of books and subjects, and it made me so excited to introduce these new tools to the students who I currently tutor and to my future students. It just goes to show you that despite growing up in the era of technology there is always something new to learn. I can't wait to see what this class will teach me next week.