Profiling Students of Today

http://preetisingh.podbean.com/

Technology is a part of culture for our students these days. These generations of students are considered Digital Natives because, right from the time they are born, they are exposed to technology. Due to this exposure, these students relate better to lessons taught with the aid of technology. I teach third grade in a suburban community and have 25 students in my class. The cultural demographic of my class is:

Asian Indian: 52%

African American: 20%

Middle Eastern: 12%

White: 8%

Hispanic: 8%

I gave my students a survey to see how technology affects their lives. After looking at the results of the survey, I came to realize that almost all my students were involved in some aspect of technology on a daily basis. Only two of my students do not have a computer at home. Both of these students wrote on the survey that they miss not having a computer, and that their parents are getting them one for Christmas.

Since I have started the classroom blog, I see the enthusiasm students have every day about posting comments on their blog and doing their homework. I have seen a drastic difference in their attitude towards homework assignments. They are very proud of themselves because we are the only class in the entire school that has a blog, other than one maintained by the computer teacher.

I plan to capture this enthusiasm and start podcasting material before every unit test. Next week, my students will be recording their social studies vocabulary words. I will upload these words in a podcast and attach this to the classroom blog. Students can listen to the words on their iPod (most of their parents have an iPod). They are excited to work on this project and almost every one of them took their social studies book home this weekend to practice vocabulary words. I feel the passion for learning in my students and this is due to the technology I am using in the classroom.

I interviewed three of my third graders to see how technology affects their daily lives. I hope you enjoy the podcast!

The URL to my podcast is: http://preetisingh.podbean.com/