1. Infants, toddlers and preschoolers experience what is called a digital childhood
2. Teachers are moving towards a technology-based office
3. Teachers are being taught how to build a digital identity and the growing importance for teachers being technology savvy.
Technology is everywhere; use daily for varies reasons but knowing that infants, toddlers and preschoolers raises a mixed opinion for me. I have seen young children use technology before always leading me to have the internal debate of which age is too young to share technology. I would agree with using technology for educational purposes since it is a very interesting and different way for children to learn. However, I would disagree with utilizing forms of technology as a babysitter on planes and in stores as experienced many times. What are we teaching kids if they see everyone on technology and not communicating face to face? Technology is great when used appropriately but people can become too depend on technology and miss opportunities for growth.
I see the reasons for technology making teaching easier; being able to check emails, short through planning and keep assessment records for students on in one easy to locate place. Also, teachers can move with their laptops or an iPad into different locations and in certain districts bring home their technology so they can continue their efforts to plan. I can see ease using technology can bring to teaching but technology can cause people to become dependent on it and when problems arise such as the internet being down or teachers lose their saved information. I love the role technology plays in my life but I don’t rely on it and save my information in different areas to recover loss data.
My boss at camp once said “beware what you post; it could come back to haunt you and I do check on you”. Also, I went through a serious of talks this semester about social media and representing yourself online. Building a digital identity is so very important now in these times as people are looking for jobs trying to outshine other candidate and some time is comes down to technology means to determine your character. I know that there are some aspects of technology I know and others that I am not comfortable using yet.
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
