The digital world can be complicated. In creating my blog, I was forced to consider what it means to live in a digital world. In terms of not only my chosen career path but my recent studies at high school I found myself thinking about the effect both on students and future education.
Personally, I found that the digital world has motivated me with my studies and has allowed me, as Tuma (2015) suggests, to take control of my learning. I learned about the importance technological integration and viewing technology as a tool rather than the subject of instruction (Starr, 2011). I also thought about the impact of the digital world upon the school curriculum and how it needs to support students to become digitally fluent. However, there are also downsides to introducing technology. For example, I thought back to when my primary school introduced iPads in grade 3. Three years later, the school has seen a dramatic decrease in both handwriting skills and spelling.
The exciting thing about all of this is that teachers can educate their students with information that is current and now. Students can collaborate and learn from each other’s mistakes and barriers can be broken. Throughout my blog, I engaged with several different tools. For example, Prezi, Microsoft Office tools, Voice recording Apps, Apps for talking Avatars, YouTube and WordPress. Initially, WordPress was like another world for me. However, after finding some online sites and forums I made some progress. To be honest, it was uncomfortable trying to use the new technology but with each day it became easier. Through this experience, I can understand a little how daunting navigating the complexity of an evolving digital world (Tuma, 2015) could be for some teachers who are used to teaching in a particular way and have been doing so for decades (Cox, 2017).
“Children at school” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Lupuca
References
Cox, J. (2017). Technology in the Classroom: Being a Teacher in a Digital Era. Retrieved April 19, 2017, from http://www.teachhub.com/technology-classroom-being-teacher-digital-era
Starr, L. (2011). Technology Integration / Ideas That Work. Retrieved April 18, 2017, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech176.shtml
Tuma, S. (2015). Navigating the Complexity of an Evolving Digital World. Retrieved April 18, 2017, from https://www.accenture.com/t20151002T161049__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/next-gen/pulse-of-media/pdf/Navigating-the-Complexity-of-an-Evolving-Digital-World.pdf
Teaching and Learning in a digital wourld 