Tech Article Prequestions and All!!!

WARNING! The prequestions are structured in a different way than the after article questions are. The first ones have just the numbers, where as the second set of questions have the answers right beneath them.

1. How are you and your teachers alike? 2. How are you and your teachers different? 3. What skills and talents do you have in common? 4. What talents and knowledge does your generation have that your parents and teachers might lack?


1.) Teachers and students are very alike in the fact that they both have to learn something new every single day. People learn things from each other every day, and no matter what happens, that makes humans, of every kind, very alike.

2.) Teachers and students are also different in the fact that teachers, all of them, have all been through high school before, they've done all of this before, and now it's the students turn and they should pay attention.

3.) Teachers, students, adults, everyone has similar talents, as well as different ones. Every person has the ability to learn, and everybody has the ability to react. Talents, such as high powered learning, good work ethics, and the ability to understand and analyze, are talents that every human on the planet has, be them teacher, student, adult, or child.

4.) I think that the kids now are very technologically advanced, more so than their parents, grandparents and such. The only reason for this is that kids were born into an age where technology is prominent. They learn how to use it more to their advantage and at a much earlier age than their parents were. Most of our parents were born when the first computers were just starting to be created, when the only e-mail service was Yahoo, and the World Wide Web, wasn't so much World Wide. Nowadays though, you can talk to people in other states, other countries, other continents, with the click of a button and the press of the keys on the keyboard, or the dialing of numbers on a cell phone. Though everybody is capable of doing these things, it is harder to learn them the older you are, which is why some adults, more so grandparents than parents, struggle with technology.

((Done with PreQuestions))


1. Identify yourself as either a digital immigrant or native and why?
I think that I am a digital immigrant more or less. I was a very sheltered kid and didn't really begin using the internet, or even a telephone until I was about 10. I didn't get a cell phone until I was 15, and I didn't get a computer in my own home until I was about 14. This means that I had to learn all of the ways of the internet, and I'm still trying to figure most of them out. I didn't get a myspace until last year, and I just got a facebook account 3 weeks ago or so.

2. Are all teens digital natives? Why? If they are not, why?
Most are, I don't doubt that, but it's not so much teens as it is the younger children, most of us had already been born before the internet browsers were made, where as the 6 and 7 year olds already have access to what we didn't when we were that age. Also, some teens are still very sheltered and do not have internet access at home, some may not even have a computer.

3. Are all adults digital immigrants?
Again, most are. Though there are some that are not. You have to take into consideration that our parents were born around the time of the creation of the Internet, and computers and cell phones. They learned how to use this technology, more than their own parents had.

4. What role do you think technology and the web should play in your education?
I think that accessing the Internet is a great resource for students and it should be utilized in school. Technology has much to offer kids, as well as teachers, who can find lesson plans from other teachers in other schools, in other countries, at the tips of their fingers.

5. Do you believe programs like APEX are an example of technology at work?
APEX is a type of technology. I do believe, being a part of it myself, that it offers a lot for students to learn. But I do believe that if teaching programs like this continue to escalate, maybe not this upcoming generation, but certainly the one after it, will be more likely to be schooled from the internet, versus having teachers and classroom settings.

6. How do you think growing up with technology has influenced your thinking and life?
Like I said previously, I didn't really "grow up" with technology, and have only really been in active part of it in the past 5-7 years. However, now I find myself expressing more through posting on threads on forum sites, and blogging and joining the different IMing applications and learning different languages, all on my own via the internet, which I now use every day. This has created issues at my house because my grandmother is insisting that it's "rotting away my brain". But is it truly worse than sitting and staring blankly at a television for four hours a day? Is that better than using my mind to creatively write on forum sites with other people, play interactive puzzle games, and talk to people in different states an countries? I personally think not.

7. How has NOT growing up with technology impacted the thinking of the older generations?
The older generations are more likely to sit and watch tv than join a conversation on the internet. They don't hate technology, but it does have a tendency to frustrate them as they are still in the process of learning how to use it. It takes longer to learn something the older you get.

8. & 9. Could you live without technology? How would its absence impact your day?
I have lived without technology. I have lived without electricity in general. Did it impact my life? A little, but I found something to busy my mind with by spending more time with my friends, or painting, or drawing, or writing, or simply listening to music. Now though, I could very possibly live without it, and probably should as the weather gets nicer and it's better to be outside rather than sitting in the house on my laptop. Though it would completely interrupt my current schedule, as I spend my entire evening on my laptop. But I am already without the cell phone that most teenagers love. I have one yes, but it only serves as a clock, a calendar, and a calculator.