After an engaging reading of Marc Prensky’s articles and discovering what a digital native is I would have to say that I am a digital native. I am a digital native because I can not imagine a world with out the technology we have now. I can not remember a time when my family did not have video games or a computer, I remember being in the first grade and spending a large amount of time watching my older brothers playing a video game on our new (new to us I suspect) Nintendo entertainment system. I would have to agree with Marc Prensky in his first article when he describes our generation as "used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to ‘serious’ work." Most of those characteristics fit me. Right now as I am doing the homework for this class I have my music playing, I have a little silly online game that I only have to check every couple of minutes on, and I am texting my wife about who she is with and what she is doing. I hate when I have to wait a long time for results when the internet is slow or it takes my computer a little extra to do something it really irritates me.

Growing up as a digital native my experience with technology in the classroom was both frustrating and useful. Looking back at the teachers whose only use of any technology was the ancient over head projector I now realize that it was because I was used to such faster processing of information that the overhead led to boredom and my attention wamdering. They just did not understand as Prensky put it "children raised with the computer ―think differently from the rest of us. They develop hypertext minds. They leap around" so the use of the overhead is boring and makes them not want to pay attention. Teacher's need to understand that what Prensky said is true, that we have something engaging at our finger tips at all times. I also agree with the kid who was interviewed by yahoo when he said “I could have nothing to do, and I’ll find something on the internet.”

For the most part there was a lack of technology in high school. As I moved on to college we were able to turn in assignments via e-mail and there was almost no more need for hand writing papers. As far as in classroom experience some teachers are really good at using it and others try but fail. It seems that the most common way to bring in technology is to use a power point. Some teachers use this very effectively others try but read off the slide or just go way to slow. Slides are good for pictures but don't need every word you say on them. Others would have us use Web CT and have us post discussions or questions or even assignments on it, they also used it as a medium to give us the important information for class such as the syllabus, the assignments, or even the lecture information itself. So in some ways it improved my learning when used correctly in others it hurt it because the teachers became lazy not requiring us to keep up the posts.

I do not believe that these articles have changed my mind on the use of technology in the future as an educator, because technology is such a part of my life that I could not imagine not using it. Not only will I use a good and engaging text book that may have supplementary materials such as a CD with interactive games to help the student study, but with the use of the Internet and YouTube I can show short films or clips to supplement their learning.