Week Six Essential Question

How does teacher experience change how they view technology integration?

Teacher experience has a major factor on their view and perspective of bringing in, using, and implementing activities with technology within their own classroom with students.  After reading this week's essential question I thought about one of the chapters in our text book that discussed the generation gap between not only students and teachers, but teachers and teachers as well.  It discussed the "Millenials" as teachers who have had more exposure to technology than veteran teachers who were not part of the technology era and may not have had much experience with it.  In today's society, it is common for almost every household to have at least one computer, but in earlier eras this was not the case.  Growing up with technology, internet, and other digital resources has been very beneficial in the aspect of exposure, familiarity, and understanding of its capability, function, uses, and benefits.

From my own personal experience at Charlotte Avenue, I have experienced this generational gap in regards to technology.  I do not know how many times I have been asked to fix someone's Outlook, figure out text or something on a veteran teacher's iPhone, attach a document on email, or retrieve a document off of SharePoint.  These are just a few examples of what I witness on a day to day basis.  In conclusion, a teacher's experience influences their ability or view on integrating technology within their classroom because they may not be as familiar on how to utilize it. I feel the more comfortable a teacher is with technology, the more a person will reap the benefits of incorporating it into his/her classroom.  Like Chapter 2 in our book states, it is essential to be collaborative with members of our team, because you can help fellow coworkers become more comfortable in using technology which hopefully changes their perception of integrating and bringing in some of the "digital age" teaching and utilizing technology to help their students learn.  Showing teachers that technology is not as "foreign" as they believe will hopefully show them that technology is definitely within their grasp and they are capable of bringing it into the classroom to enrich their students' learning.