Why+Technology?

Why Technology?? We teach a curriculum that strives to:

-reflect the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes that Alberta students need to be well-prepared for future learning and the world of work

- anticipate and plan for the needs of the future by considering the changes and developments in society, such as trends in employment, globalization, advances in technology and stewardship of the environment

-provide learners with attitudes, skills and knowledge that will enable them to become engaged, active, informed and responsible citizens ([|ATA]).

We know that learning must begin with knowing our students and as educators we gain "insight into the child's capacities, interests and habits" (Dewey in Flinders,1929). Our students, digital natives, are immersed in technology and have grown up with it.

The term digital native and digital immigrant was coined by Mark Prensky. Digital natives were born after 1980 and digital immigrants were born before 1980. We need to consider these student's learning styles and interests, especially since they have grown up in a digital world and spend a lot of their time using technology. He states that there are "never before seen differences between the generation that grew up with technology and the generation that grew up before these technologies" ([|Prensky, 2003]).

For example, by the time our students are 21 they would have:

A) played more than 10,000 hours of video games B) sent and received 250,000 emails and text messages C) spent 10,000 hours talking on phones D) watched more than 20,000 hours of television ([|Prensky, 2003]).

As educators, we need to understand that these students have new abilities, skills and preferences ([|Prensky, 2003]).

Digital natives learn differently than previous generations due to their exposure and interaction with technology. Current research shows that ([|Jukes, 2008)]):

1. Digital natives are visual kinesthetic learners. search shows that the eye process and interprets digital images 60,000 times faster than it does words. In a visual memory test, digital natives, on average, scored 90% whereas digital immigrants scored 60% and those that grew up in an entirely text and print based world could recall only 10% of the visual images. (note: visual processing increases dramatically, with as little as 10 hours of game play).

2. Because digital natives think graphically, their eyes move differently when reading materials. In fact, digital immigrants read in a Z pattern, digital natives read in an F pattern. Their eyes skim the bottom and edges of the page, instead of focusing on <span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">the center.

<span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">3. Specific colors attract and repel digital natives when they are reading. For example, blood red font draws attention first, then neon green. Burnt orange is skimmed and black font is completely ignored.

<span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">The internet has influenced digital natives and is a significant part of the lives of ours students. Web 2.0 can be a powerful learning tool in your classroom, but keep in mind that following essential pedagogical principles is important for our students when using Web 2.0 or any other tools (Jaffer in Gorder, 2008):

<span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">1. active learning <span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">2. mediation <span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">3. collaboration <span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">4. interactivity