Chapter 3: Multiliterate Youth

Technology has come such a long way in the past five years. People depend on it so much more than they ever have. Now you can sit on the couch and surf the internet all through a tablet. If you don't know an answer to a question just google it. With this drastic change in technology, comes a drastic change in schools. I believe this can be a hard change for some teachers. Students now a days know more than I do about technology, and I am only twenty-seven! I think for some teachers this change in technology is a hard change. Teachers are attached to their basil textbooks, their weekly spelling test, and making sure they get their weekly grades in time. Students are capable of so much more than doing pencil/paper assignments for everything. Now, I do believe it is important to teach these skills because it is a life skills. Students should be able to write sentences and create paragraphs, but there are so many other options for students to show what they know than just paper/pencil tasks. My students use Edmodo, which I believe is a great tool for teachers and students. Edmodo is basically a Facebook for students. Students are able to communicate with each other and their teachers with given assignments or tasks. This is something students do outside of school. They are constantly communicating with each other whether it is through a blog, Facebook, texting, or Twitter. The 21st century is changing our country, and I believe it is for the good!

Many of my students are all about video games! I hear daily about Minecraft. I don't necessarily think video games are all that bad. Yes, some are very violent which I don't think is very age appropriate, but many of them have great aspects to them. I even had a mom tell me that she uses Minecraft with her son who struggles in reading and math. When playing Minecraft, she has her son read out loud the directions, but then there is a lot of inferring in the game. He is able to explain the game and what he needs to do and why. He is able to comprehend the game just as if it were a book. In my classroom, I use technology daily. My students play multiplication games where they can actually compete with each other. I have lower students who don't know their multiplication facts, but they love to compete with other students which helps them improve! I think there is a right time for video games and a right time for pencil/paper. I believe with the times changing that we will see more technology and less paper/pencil. As long as we are doing it right, I believe technology is a great tool to use in the classroom and is a necessity!