Digital Native or Not?

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I think of myself as a cross between both a digital immigrant and a digital native. When I think about my childhood, it did not involve lots of technology computer-wise. I was born in 1985 and most of my memories revolve around board games and playing with dolls and toys. As I am typing this, my mind is shifting a bit, though. Thinking about technology as a whole, and less as a computer, I remember we did have a Nintendo and eventually had a Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. We also had a car phone at some point that was wired to the car. I remember maybe in 5th grade I got a Gameboy and at some point had a battery operated Tamagotchi toy. Ha! This is kind of funny to think about as "digital" but I guess it really was. We did not have a desktop computer until I was in middle school. I remember we had one big one in the living room that everyone took turns using with dial up internet. I will never forget the sound of logging onto AOL and the anger I felt when my mom picked up the phone and "accidentally" logged me off.  As a high school student we had cell phones but not smart phones, and we only used phones for phone calls and maybe a text here and there. I think I got a phone with a keyboard maybe towards the end of high school in 2003. In college we did not use laptops in class and pretty much only used them on our own to type papers, printed them out, and turned in a paper copy. As a teacher, I feel like I am more digitally "native" and advanced than some of my colleagues. I always challenge myself to use instructional and student centered technology to help enhance lessons and help students engage with the content. I really love the fact, and am, in a way, proud that I grew up before the digital native generation. I just want to make sure that I constantly strive to stay up to date for both myself and my students. I do not want to be behind, and will always rise to the challenge of ever changing technological and digital world.

 Enjoy a random video of animal sounds and names in Spanish below. 

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