Digital Blog Post B Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, there were several interesting topics. A couple in particular really stood out to me. A High School Survey of Student Engagement in Indiana showed that two thirds of students were bored in class everyday and half of students only spent four hours or less studying or doing homework. (Maloy, et al. 2013,p.28) I was a bit surprised by this because I would often be up doing homework for several hours a day. The survey also said only 57% of kids said they participated regularly in class discussions.(Maloy, et al. 2013,p.28) I can relate to this more because I was usually one of the quieter kids in class that didn't always feel comfortable speaking up in class. Online discussion boards are nice because they give students another way to interact and have discussions with their classmates and teachers, other than just in the traditional classroom setting. 50% of students said they didn't ever get feedback from teachers on assignment in a decent amount of time (Maloy, et al. 2013,p.28) Again, technology can help with this because it can be used to communicate feedback to students almost instantly if needed.

Furthermore, on page 34 of 'Transforming Learning with New Technologies', it says only 1 in 5 teachers use technology frequently in the classroom. (Maloy, et al. 2013,p.34) It is a little odd seeing this considering it is the 21st century and how much we use technology. I think this statistic will change with the new generation of teachers coming up. Our high school used the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) system so we used technology quite a bit and maybe more than most other high schools so it is just what I am used to.

Another thing I found intriguing was the section on digital natives versus digital immigrants. The more recent generations are generally digital natives, who spend about 10000 hours playing video games and 20000 watching TV. As a bit of an experiment, a brand new tablet was given to a couple students, less than 20 years old. They set it up without any difficulty or instruction. After, they gave it to a couple of people a bit older who asked for the instruction manual and could not use it nearly as easily the younger generation.(Maloy, et al. 2013, p.38) This shows how much technology is evolving and how much more people are relying on it now. We have to adapt to the new technological age as teachers. 

All in all, technology is a very useful tool in a classroom and is being implemented more and more into the everyday routine. 

Resources

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Burke, M (2015, September 12). Created with Bitstrips http://www.bitstrips.com/r/WDP0Z