How Can Technology Effect the Learning Process

At ISTE back in June, I heard the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" over and over. These terms, coined by Mark Prensky describe a change that has occurred from the previous generation to the one that is presently being educated in the following paragraph... "Today‟s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today's average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives."
So, to answer the question about "how can technology effect the learning process?". It is going to effect the learning process no matter what because even if we don't use technology in the classrooms, the students are using it so much outside the classrooms that the way they learn has already shifted from the way we learned in the classroom. In other words, we can embrace technology in the classroom or resist it, but the bottom line is your students are using it and learning from it on their own. I think this leads me to my next blog post...