A Digital Frontier

     Technology is constantly advancing around us. With e-books growing in popularity as well as the tablets they are viewed on, paperless seems to be the beneficial way to go; as it's marketed to be better for the planet with less trees being cut down. My generation was the first to grow up technologically savvy. When I was in elementary school, being that it was a private one my parents had to pay a high tuition in order for me to attend. With the money that was put into the school, there were several classroom programs that included the heavy use of computers to aid in teaching. In my mathematics classes, periodically we engaged in playing the game "Math Blaster". With the theme of space and battling to get the correct number and blasting the incorrect ones out of the way, needless to say it was a very popular game, especially among the males in my class. Moving into Middle School, there were similar themes. I was at a middle school for higher educated learning and with the decent budget, I also engaged in technologically attached classrooms. As I grew older, I became more aware of social networks and I participated in all of the popular ones such as Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, and others. Xanga served as my first blogging experience as I used it to constantly reflect and express myself as a young man. With Facebook and MySpace, I opened my eyes to the risky lifestyle that is social networking. 

     Upon reading Will Richardon's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I noticed that for seasoned teachers and professors, they feel that they lack in being as technologically savvy as their students. With that, there is a gap that exists. I have personally experienced this as the role of the student. I have had several teachers and professors who struggle to use technology in application to their curriculum. Although technology has advanced and school databases move into paperless structures, I found that regardless of educational establishments moving forward by installing these technologies into their respective areas, I feel there is still some negligence for teachers who are not technologically savvy. Despite this, I feel that this gap will close up as newer teachers from my generation will proceed to use technology as a resource in their classrooms.

     As a teacher-in-training, in the future I will absolutely install the usage of technology in my classroom, as a means of teaching, to post assignments, and to communicate with my students who may not want to do so face to face. In terms of teaching a second language, I feel very strongly about using technology as a very valuable resource. Today there are programs that exist such as the Rosetta Stone Language Program, the Pimsleur Learning Program and many other branches of language programs that rely on technology in order to reach to students all over the world. I intend to teach English abroad to elementary students between second to fourth grade so the standards for students of English as a Second Language, as described on the New York State Education Department website: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/resource/ESL/03Elem.pdf include that of students demonstrating "cross-cultural knowledge and understanding" as well as learning to "listen, speak, read and write in English for classroom and social interaction." 

     Using a combination of curriculum that can be applied in the concrete classroom as well as the digital one, I believe that these standards can be accomplished. On education-friendly websites such as ePal and with the digital classroom set towards English language teaching, the student will learn how to demonstrate cross-cultural knowledge and understanding through the inclusion of culture in the curriculum. The combination of technology and concrete classroom teaching would provide more than enough for the standards of listening, speaking, reading and writing activities along with social interaction. As more students enroll into school, students as young as kindergarten consistently build up their technological skills. With more tablets being used as paperless bedtime stories for children, it is natural at this point that the incoming students are savvy with technology.

     Even though technology serves positively in teaching, as well as an enjoyable way for students to learn and express themselves, it must not be forgotten that a concrete classroom environment is also necessary to teach at times. In my future classrooms, I would like to implement a balanced blend between concrete and digital classrooms. As I grew up in the generation that looked to the digital frontier for many answers, I know the dangers of losing oneself and forgetting the concrete world. There are many positives and negatives to the digital world, as there is to the concrete one so with that, we, as future teachers and current teachers alike must look to balance these worlds in order to create a better environment for our students.