Technology in Education

Abstract

This comprehensive project examines how overexposure to technology impacts the learning styles of students, and how teaching strategies need to be adapted to meet the changing learning needs of this generation. David Jukes (2010) book, Understanding the Digital Generation (Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape), discusses how students learning styles have evolved and changed over the years due to them being inundated with technology from a young age. This paper will examine Jukes claims, discuss how modern teachers need to adapt their teaching styles to reach students of the Digital Generation, and will offer practical lessons that teachers can use in their classrooms to help promote student engagement in class activities. There second part of the paper is a comprehensive unit on folktales. The unit consists of 11 lessons, and several of the lessons incorporate the technology strategies that have been discussed in the paper. Students will conduct several writing assignments: using word processors, online writing applications, and websites. Students will engage in collaborative group projects. The final assignment in the unit will ask students to compose an original folktale with illustrations. This final assignment will need to be turned in in a professional format. Students will either have their book bound, or it will be turned in in a binder or portfolio. These lessons will also adhere to the New York State Common Core English Language Arts Learning Standards.