Reflection #3

What?  What is the turning point age range when kids become technologically fluent?  Is it during infancy, when one-year-olds like playing with the light switch and radio buttons?  Or is it when kids are toddlers and begin to understand that Dad is talking to them through the phone?  Or perhaps is it during early childhood, when they start to watch Veggie Tales on TV, master the remote control, and even learn how to draw pictures on Bitmap Images with the mouse?  I feel like it's none of those.  I think kids don't become truly technologically literate until they're in their pre-teens.

So What? I've been thinking about this lately because I plan to work with middle-schoolers and I want to understand where they are at in this subject area.  It seems like kids start to understand and use more complex and essential technologies at and past ten years old.  This is important for me to understand because if I don't know where my own students are at, how can I build off of what they already know (or don't know)?

What Now?  I hope to figure this question out through observation and research so I can do my best to help my future students use tools that they're already fluent in and learn tools that would spur growth in other areas of their lives.  Right now, I have my uneducated guesses - but hopefully as I continue to observe students in the school environment and learn from teachers who have been in this for much longer than I have, I will be better equipped to teach technology and use it in teaching.