Teaching in the Digital Age

I'm caught between a Digital native and immigrant. I came of age during the early years of the digital age. I was taught some things using computers mainly e-mail and word processing. A majority of my school work was still paper and pencil work. I learned from the readings and videos that today's learners spend a majority of their time on electronic devices and today's learner will be filling jobs that are not existent today. I agree that, as an educator, it is my responsibility to prepare these students for the future by giving them tools and skills they can use today. I also see the extreme merit in teaching students the fundamentals of why things work and patience of solving a long multi-step problem without instant gratification. I think students should know how to set a calculator aside and do a problem in their head or out on paper. It would be wonderful to be able to go paperless and have students put all their assignments in type. Many of my students do not have access to computers outside of school so I find that not only am I teaching them about my subject I also end up teaching them the technical parts of using a computer and new software. I have no problem with that except that it takes away from time teaching my subject. I don't mind entertaining students in order to engage them, using tech items to communicate on the same level, I understand that they will be getting ready for jobs that don't exist yet but using technology that is going to change in 5 minutes is another draw back to spending so much time teaching using it. Don't get me wrong, I think tech tools are essential in this day and age and we should be teaching and demonstrating the use of them. However, I think that traditions are tradition for a reason and rather than fully get rid of old educational methods and completely embrace the new they should be integrated because let's face it we turned out alright didn't we.