Digital Literacy Blog Post

            In elementary and middle school my teachers didn’t do much of anything to prepare me for the technological requirements in college. In high school, a program was offered called Flex where students could take one or two of their classes online. I participated in this program both my junior and senior year of high school. I feel as though it prepared me for what I’m expected to do this year on Moodle. I think I now have an advantage over students who didn’t take online classes in high school because I’m already used to all of the pros and cons that come with it. I’ve experienced many tech issues and I’ve learned to check my assignments online often and ahead of time just in case any problems should arise at the last minute. With my other four classes that I didn’t take online my teachers didn’t do anything to prepare me for the online aspect of college classes. This semester every single one of my classes has an online component and even though I have experience with online classes it’s still an adjustment. I would suggest to elementary, middle and high school teachers to do what they can to make their students turn their assignments in online and get them familiar with doing school work on the computer.

            I will often use computers in my career as a nurse. Recently, most hospitals and doctors’ offices have chosen to go “paper-less”. This means every patients’ medical charts are online and doctors and nurses use iPads or other tablet devices in order to access them. Not only has technology made things easier for the doctors, nurses and other staff, mainly because charts are no longer misplaced, but it’s also been good for the environment and for the economy. Office supplies tend to be expensive and that aspect has been cut out using the new online system. The time I spend here at Oakland University will undoubtedly prepare me for the technology I’ll be using while I work. By being familiarized with an online system I’ll already be comfortable doing that when I go to work for a hospital or doctors’ office that uses computerized medical charts.

            I write better in a less formal document, like a blog or email. I feel stress and pressure to be perfect while I’m writing a formal paper and those constraints don’t exist with informal writing.  When I’m writing a paper I feel like if every comma isn’t in place and I’ve removed every conjunction then I’ll be penalized and that anxiety tends to give me writer’s block. When I’m writing informally the words tend to flow and I tend to worry less about structure which in the end produces better, more authentic writing.

            I would not want the responsibility of being a teacher in this day and age. It’s too difficult to try to prepare kids for the known future let alone the unknown. I would do my best to prepare my students for the real world by preparing them for all of the technology they’ll be using by letting them practice with it.

            To me, the tone of the piece seemed cautionary. It warned that teachers and parents should be preparing kids for a new world, not the same one we’re living in today. I fully agree with the thesis and have experienced the problem first hand. Technology is such a big part of the world now and kids aren’t being taught how to use it properly for educational purposes, even though it’s a great tool, because the generation teaching them doesn’t necessarily know how to use it. Now more than ever kids aren’t prepared for the real world when they leave school. Technology has the capability to better prepare students for careers and life in general if taught and used properly.