Week 1 Reflective Blog

I work with various age groups, Baby boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. The observation that I have made with the Baby boomer population is that they are slower to learn technology, are not trusting with the use of it, don’t have the patience to research the information, do the reading required, and easily get frustrated as a result of that, they rather do things the traditional way such as writing letters verses emails, paying bills through traditional mail verse paying online and the list goes on, however the Baby boomers that do embrace technology, it is very limited how they used it.  I found that the Generation X population attitude is more embracing of technology than baby boomers. Technology was becoming more wide steam, affordable and readily available and they were able to incorporate it into their lives which required a behavioral change to do so. However technology was not required for Generation X to use in their daily lives it was more of an option to use it if desired. Generation X are somewhat in the middle they can go either way when it comes to changing their behavior with integrating technology into their daily lives. The observation that I have made with the Millennial generation is technology has become a normal part of their everyday life and they rely more on the use of technology to get things done in some instances in the absence of technology it has become harder for them to adjust their behavior to doing things the traditional way and some basic skill set which requires critical thinking skills may not be present which makes it more difficult to adjust to the change.

There is some truth to the readings and I think that the transition is more obvious between the Baby boomer generation and the Millennial generation. I feel that the baby boomer generation relies more on their critical thinking skills and the Millennial generation rely more on technological skills. There are advantages to both. I think there need to be a middle ground teaching the importance of how things are done traditionally using critical thinking skills as well as integrating technology to enhance critical thinking skills.

Introduction

Hello Everyone,

My name is Vicky Franklin, I am pursuing a Master’s degree in Instructional Technology with an emphasis on interactive technologies.  This is my third semester at Wayne State. I received my undergraduate degree from Lawrence Tech University (BSBA emphasis in finance).  I worked in Community of Mental Health for 12 years and in education for 8 years. I enjoy yoga, martial arts, studying Spanish, learning how to code and spending time with family and friends. 

My purpose of pursing a Master of Education degree in Instructional Technology is two-fold, first, to re-design financial literacy curriculum with integrated note-taking tool that will improve note-taking and studying skills that ultimately will improve academic performance in math. Secondly, to design professional development training that focus on integrating technology into the classroom.  I am creative, eager to learn what this course is offering, and committed to get things done. I am looking forward to meeting and working with new individuals.