Technology+Facilitator+Standard+I

**Technology Operations and Concepts**
"Technology Operations and Concepts, technology facilitators and leaders ensure that their colleagues possess the fundamental understanding and skills needed to operation specific technologies and understand the concepts associated with technology use" (Williamson, 2009).

**Self Assessment**
As I found myself categorized as a “digital immigrant” in our earlier reading assignments (Prensky, 2001), I began to notice a profound differences between our generations of learners and how they use this new technology that has taken over the world as we know it and knew it.

In our age of technology advancement, it isn't uncommon to find that our younger generation knows the workings of multiple gadgets and electronic devices to aid in their forms of communication and entertainment. Often times, you will see a group of girls gathering together to share a slice of information they just downloaded from a "cool site" or You-Tube. As the digital express lane overtakes our forms of communication, we, as the older generation, find we are not excluded from this reality. Banks now offer paperless monthly statements; PDA's and cellphones reminding you of appointments to keep; Libraries are now offering digital books to download to your iPad or Kindle; the only fear we now possess is running out of battery power!

**Learn as a Learner**
As I have worked in the educational field for colleges the past 20 years, I have witnessed the stress the educational field, in general, in trying to keep the pace with this electronic tidal wave as technology changes seemingly every 6 months. When our college budgets finally allow for new upgrades to the technology we utilize everyday, we seem to already be lagging behind the latest computer models or revised software. Our students seem to be able to "keep up" with the latest gadgets easier than school systems can approve their budgets to have a particular educational technology available. Older instructors are also finding it difficult in making the transition while younger instructors have a definite advantage. The younger instructors have assimilated into the new digital age easily, it being the only world they have known. "Educators are more likely than ever before to acquire at least some basic technology proficiencies outside of the school environment. The Web, email and basic computing are often a part of educators' daily personal and professional lives, and, as younger teachers enter the workforce, it is increasingly likely that they will not remember a time when they did not have access to the Internet" (Williamson, 2009).

**Lifelong Learning Skills**
As I continue my career in the educational field, I know I will be constantly reminded of my standing in this digital world. Our digital natives are the driving force behind the education that is now being re-assembled, re-thought, and re-planned for the first time in recent history. Educational administrators around the world are finding that today's students are accustomed to "having digital technology at their fingertips all the time means that students think, work, and play differently from previous generations" (Soloman, 2007).

Even though I have found my comfort level somewhere between the dusty shelves of my 33 rpm record album collection and my DVD library, I will always know there is one more future gadget with a smiling digital native attached, in some form or fashion, that will challenge my braincells to a digital dual attempting to send me spiraling to the depths of digital despair.

**References**
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Part 1. //On the Horizon//, 9(5), 1-6.

Soloman, G. & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, New Schools. Eugene, OR: //International Society for Technology in Education.//

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards. Eugene, OR: //International Society for Technology in Education.//