How Computer has Reformed our Lives

I have designed this unite to be taught to grade 6 students at our school.  I realized that I have to explain lots of things to the digital natives because they have no idea what life was like before the computer was invented.  It was so interesting to see the expressions on their faces when I talked about mainframes computer and how big the computer was in the early days.   I used the Intel website as a virtual tour to explore the computer’s history and how the Internet works.  Students did a great job searching the information and sharing it during class time.  When we started taking about Web 2.0 applications that was another story.  Students became so excited to explore different applications and to try them.  Beside Facebook and YouTube, they have learned about Edmodo, Voice Thread website, Wiki, Blog, Vimeo, Prezi, Flikr, and Skype.  Despite the fact that we all worked on edmodo.com and voicethread.com creating classwork work and sharing it, I have found some students did more than I expected and created blogs and wikis for different purposes. 

Our final project was creating a presentation using the iMovie application to show what they have learned about Web 2.0.  The result was amazing.  Students did excellent work and demonstrated a high level of understanding about these applications and how they can be effectively utilized.  As a 21st century teacher I realized that these native digital learners do really well when we talk to them in the language that they are more familiar with.  This generation was born digital and they feel more comfortable using technology as part of their learning and we have to accept that and know how to reach out for their needs.  

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