EDUC+515

= Professional Life =

I want to learn all the things I will need to help my students learn better and use all the digital technology in my classroom to help me accomplish my goals as a teacher. I honestly do not want to be “just another teacher” teaching in schools and not care about my students’ learning. I want to be a guide for them, someone they can count on, and I want to make a difference in their lives. I am the first one in my family to get a degree. My parents did not have the opportunity to go to school and get a career, so they told my brother and I to get a career, to be somebody. I received my AA from Oxnard College in 1999 and in 2005 I graduated from Chico State with a BA in Liberal Studies and Spanish. My plans were to do my credential at Chico State but, unfortunately, the director lost my contact information and when they finally were able to contact me, they accused me of being irresponsible and unprofessional and after waiting for 3 hours outside their office, they told me that I was accepted in the program but I was going to be on probation for 6 months and prove to them that I had “initiative” and I was truly a “professional candidate”. I became angry when I heard that so I refused to take it. I felt hurt, angry, disappointed, I felt everything inside of me. I cried, I will not deny it, and there was actually a moment where I believed I was truly responsible for what happened. I decided to get over it and move on, but I also wanted to work in schools and help children with their academics, so I applied for a teacher’s aide position. I had 6 different interviews and in all of them I was overqualified. Again, I felt disappointed and decided to put my career on hold to think things through. I think 5 years was a long time for thinking.  I work for Parker Hannifin Corp. where I have the position of label specialist. I design labels and print them as requested. It is a fun job because I am dealing with computers and I love computers! But all these years I felt I was missing something, so I decided to go back to school and get my Masters in Special Education and Digital Technology. And I am hoping to be a good teacher, an influential one, one who makes a difference in a student’s life.

= Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants =

There is no doubt that students or Digital Natives, as Marc Prensky calls them, see the world differently from the old generations. Their way of thinking has changed rapidly as well as their way of learning. It is true what Prensky says that “they (students) have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones,” etc. All these things are part of their lives; those devices are the nourishment that helps them to be alive.

But all this does not mean “the students’ brains have physically changed,” they are just getting adapted to what we have today in society, technologically speaking. All humans have gone through changes like these. When the first car was built, everybody was amazed and surprised to see something like that. I am pretty sure people saw that new form of transportation as strange and many probably did not like this new invention, they preferred the old, traditional way of transportation, carriages and horses. Every single thing that gets invented gets accepted well by many and rejected by others (the traditional ones). So, as new things, devices get created, people adapt to them and make them part of their lives. Others, either for their inability to accept it or learn how to use it, refuse to become part of the new inventions. Many make it difficult to adapt to the new technology we have around for many reasons, and in my opinion, fear is what keeps them from adapting to what we have around us, like iPods, iPads, iPhones, computers, etc. They fear they will not be able to learn how to use it or do something with them.

 The subjects that are being taught nowadays have been taught for years; the only thing that has changed is the ways/methods used to teach that subject. Hundreds of years ago, teachers did not have a chalkboard or chalk to write with, nor did students have pens or pencils to write with also. Then, the chalkboard was created and placed in each classroom, therefore, teachers had to adapt to the fact they had something to write on and had to be used to teach their classes. It is all about adapting. Teachers or “Digital Immigrants” need to adapt to this new technology and find ways to incorporate it in their classrooms. Teachers have to “adapt materials to the language of Digital Natives,” if they want students to learn better and pay more attention in class.