Zerofsky-Blog Post #2

     In my opinion schools need to change their curriculum to accommodate the digital native more fully.  This is because as a digital native we are honed in one using specific technologies in our everyday lives.  So we go from using digital technologies to express ourselves and communicate with others, but then when we go to school everything changes and we are forced to learn in a more traditional way.  If we are going to school to better ourselves and learn why should we have to take a step back every time we enter a classroom in order to learn?   The learning we do today should reflect the times of today.  And in today’s world technology is how things get done.  So learning should be the same way.  Teachers have started to implement technologies into the classroom, but not to their full advantage.  For instance, the use of word processing has been very influential to learning, but it could be taken a step further.  Instead of only using word processing to write papers and the like, use word processing for note taking and collaborating between students and the teacher.  Force the student to use their machine to its full potential.  Use the internet to turn in assignments, share class notes through email, and ask professors questions on homework through messaging services.  In my opinion the use of paper is outdated, that is why I like my tablet computer.  It enables me to take notes in classes where normally the only way to record the information such as math equations was on paper with pen.  But my tablet enables be to do all this and keep the file stored on my computer so I have it wherever I go without the bulk of a normal notebook.  In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” he mentions the fact that attention spans are shortening.  As this may be true, you need to take what seems to be a negative and turn it into a positive.  For instance, if everyone has a short attention span, than we need to work in small increments.  So if teachers at school had assignments on the computer we could skip between subjects of homework being more efficient in our efforts.  This would cause us to waste less time setting up for the next task, because everything would be on your computer. Technology needs to be more widely used and taught in the classroom, because it is essential to our success later in life.  Technology is how things get done in the real world.  How come that can’t be the same for learning?