I consider myself a digital native when it comes to technology. My family purchased our first computer when I was ten years old. Ever since I was in elementary school, I typed my papers on computers. Every school I have been in had a typing class or some other type of class specifically designed to increase my proficiency with technology. I took three years of computer programming in high school and I even met my wife online.



Unfortunately, my high school classes only made minimal use of technology. I went to a private school that did not have adequate funding for new technological devices. I also encountered a number of "digital immigrants" when I was in college. My history professors did not employ computers or digital media in the classroom, they simply lectured the entire time. I can identify with students who have an "engage me or enrage me" attitude because of my experience in college. I agree with Prensky when he states that "kid's long-term engagement in a game depends much less on what they see than on what they do and learn." We should engage our students by making sure the content and structure of our teaching is there and then focus on making it pretty.



I started teaching at the same high school I graduated from and, much to my dismay I was not able to integrate technology as much as I wanted to. I made powerpoint presentations and had students go to the computer lab on occasion, but I lacked the resources to find information wherever I wanted to whenever I wanted to. I am a firm believer that technology can greatly enhance learning when utilized properly.

I can identify with digital immigrants because I love learning from books, especially the old dusty ones. Primary sources are indispensible when studying history. They can convey meaning that a student will never get from searching the internet. While I agree with Prensky that "our digital immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language, are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language", I think our new "digital native" generation can learn valuable things from those instructors. There is nothing like holding a letter from a martyr and reading it aloud while being conscious of the fact that the author died moments after the letter was written. Technology is an incredibly useful tool but, as educators, we must never forget that our job is to convey feeling as well as meaning... no computer can do that.

In the future I plan to use websites and blogs to keep my students up-to-date on class information and give them access to helpful online resources. Although I am a firm believer in learning from the past, I do not think we should allow the past to inhibit our progress in the future. If technology is used in a manner that promotes learning, I see no problem with integrating it in the classroom.