Blog 1: The new age of digital technology

It seems quite funny that I would be blogging on a subject that I'm currently living in. As I was reading Chapter 1, I reflected on the first time my family got a PC. It was so new, so foreign. I think it crashed the first day we had it. And now here we are, 2008, and the world has become a digital epicenter of computers and technology has been interfaced into cars and phones. Wow. Such a long way. That's one of the topics that marveled me in Chapter one, the history of the computer. It seems funny how basic a PC was back in the 80s and how it has literally evolved into a machine that could basically type what you are saying. What is even more fascinating is how technology is merging with education. I remember reading about movies like 2001 A Space Odyssey and remember how they imagined how the future would operate. They had this particular scene in which a classroom was digitized and all students sat in front of a computer, listening to the Professor. Now, it's past 2001, and we have the ARCS system to help teachers educate the new digital age. The ARCS system is rather interesting. It centers in on the multiple intelligences a child of the digital age might have (or is currently developing) and discovers ways of using them to help the child reach their education potential. The one crucial factor that I think many educators need to grasp on with this ARCS model is the Attention factor. This day and age, digital children have extremely short attention spans. We as educators need to capture their attention very quickly with interesting presentations and creative executions. We cannot lax in this category, not at all. It's also interesting to note about how the ARCS model emphasizes in the Challenge/Confidence portion that the "challenge should properly match student's abilities". I find that rather fascinating because many challenges either reach the two extremes of challenges. Some students find a challenge rather boring, while others find it too difficult. How do we as educators find that nice medium between the two and ensure success for all? Can technology help us ensure the success of the ARCS model? Time will tell. My hope is that technology will be an AIDE and serve as a REPLACEMENT in Education. While I do enjoy the scenes in 2001 A Space Odyssey, it made me rather scared of believing the setting to be a reality. Can we as teachers function as just observers and let technology become us? I hope not.

Interesting enough, some new skills that I've learned since our last class is blogging. Blogging is increasingly becoming a new skill in the new digital age. Many use it as a form of entertainment, a favorite tool for celebrity gossipers. However, I am seeing a connection that can be drawn between blogging and education. Teachers could use blogs as a way of reflecting. First year teachers may find some use in this objective due to the fact they could reflect on how they are adjusting to the job and what they have found useful to their success. On the flip side, an experienced teacher could use it as a way to share their experiences as well as what works for them year after year.

A question I would like to pose to the class is how we as future educators could be considered different to our predecessors. We are children that grew up in the digital age, but yet we are not considered digital children because we were born before the digital boom? Or are we digital children? I think we have an edge over our predecessors because we are familiar with digital technology. We know how to use a computer. And I think we will succeed ever further because we want to learn how to coexist with digital technology. Who knows?