Digital Natives

After reading the article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, my first thoughts about the use of technology in teaching was like whoa!. How can we, the digital immigrants, succeed in a world of digital natives that are so far advanced than those that need to teach various skills.  Then as I thought longer about it I realized that we can if we are open to it.  The main differences among the two groups are that immigrants learn the new language in the way they were taught.  Whereas natives learn it in a more direct and adaptive way.  So as teachers, we must accept the differences and learn to become more adaptive ourselves in order to properly teach these digital natives.  When I was in school the beginning of the computer age began with things like green screened apple computers.  Which for us was best used to play the game Oregan Trail.  Which today is still a personal favorite.  If we are to succeed at teaching the ever growing digital native, we as teachers need to be prepared to seek out new and digitally acceptable teaching methods and find ways to intergrate the tools that these natives are accustom to using.  This may require more work on our parts as teachers, but really when have we not had to spend our time working to be a success at our profession.

21st century skills

1.The five common themes that I got from the videos are you need to be creative, have the ability to analyze technology, problem solve issues, develop ways to learn and teach using technology, and grow in you experiences with technology.
2. 21st cenury skills are skills that we learning using 21st century technology and applying these various skills in the world we live in today.
3. Everyone in the world is using 21st century skills to improve performance and work. 
4. The role of technology is to be used as a tool or focal point. 
5. My three questions I have to 21st century skills are:
What are the best ways to use 21st century skills in the classroom without making a bad impression on adminsitration?
What are the 21st century skills that can be taught without the availibility of technology?
Which of the available technologies are the most useful in the classroom environment?