NetDay Results

As a twenty two year old college student, I would be considered part of the digital immigrant group compared to the digital natives. My first interaction with a computer never came until I was in fourth grade when my parents bought one, and I never started using it for anything but games until the next year in fifth grade when I had my first typing class.
I am not completely sure of the impact that technology will have in my classroom, as I will be spending as much time as possible outdoors or in the gym as a health educator and physical education teacher. I feel that I know enough to use it a little bit, but not enough to do much with it. I am sure I will use it for emailing, keeping grades and such things like that, but I also hope to use it as a resource to keep up with the constantly changing health information. I could also seeing my students using it for resources for a project, video camera’s for creating their own work out videos or excel to graph or map out charts of their weekly physical fitness, stressors or eating habits. I would also like it if the health program for the district had their own web-site, were students could get information or ask questions. I am currently not strong at many of these aspects, but I feel I will need improvement so that I am able to use some technology to get the most out of my students.
After taking the NetDay survey and studying the results of students from k-12 and teachers, I was surprised to find how similar my results were to that of the high school students. I thought they would be much more computer literate, and would rely on technology more then individuals out of high school, like myself. My results matched that of the teachers almost perfectly, and were not even comparable with the students that had not entered high school yet. I feel that students in high school, or the juniors and seniors, are the last true digital immigrants. The bulk of their technology use was more for communication or tasks that did not involve education. The students who had not entered high school yet, did not have as high percentage as the high school students and teachers, but it was apparent that the availability of technology in their lives was much more then when I was at that age. My overall belief on technology and the affect it has on children today is not as strong as the typical adult. As a community health major I feel that students are spending too much time using technology as an excuse not to be physically active, get outside, or spend more time with family and friends. I believe technology is defiantly helping students expand their knowledge, and that it is good for them; but at the same time, what good will that knowledge do for them if they are unhealthy.