Digital Native

As a young teacher, still relatively new to the profession, I find myself caught in a very odd position.  I am a digital native.  Unlike many of my colleagues, I do not have resource books but instead find educational resources and student work online.  Many educators that I have encountered are suspicious of the movement towards technology in the classroom and are resistant to the "trend".  From what I've seen, I do think that this resistance stems from a fear of new technology.  Teachers are caught in the middle of wanting to provide the best learning experience for their students but also needing to monitor and take responsibility for student use of technology. I had a colleague once tell me that once you have been a teacher for a long time, you start to see trends come and go in a cycle.  However, there are "tried and true" methods that will always produce results.  I think that this mentality is shared by many professionals in education.  There is this search for a silver bullet for instruction- methods that will solve our problems and allow every student to learn.  Veteran teachers have seen so many programs come and go and so there is a resistance to throwing themselves all in to what might be seen as the next trend.  However, to view the use of technology as a trend or silver bullet is a mistake.  Embracing technology in the classroom will allow for innovation and creativity on a platform comfortable to most students.

Students have changed and I see that everyday. Solomon and Schrum (2007) noted that the digital natives in our schools today are living in a world that is fundamentally different.  For example, students in the past had to research and seek out answers but students of today do not have to scramble to find information; now it comes to them.  Everything that a student looks at online has links and feeds to other articles and sites (p. 27).  This can be overwhelming.  Rather than push students away from this wealth of information, my aha moment was the realization that our students no longer need help finding the information but knowing what to do with this information.  They need to be able to work through data and find connections, analyze references, and sift through to find the main idea.  While the technology might be intuitive and easy to figure out, organization and analysis must be modeled and taught. As an educator, one of my new goals is to seek out resources for creating customizable databases for the classroom. I can teach students how to collect and store data in an organized way online.

Gilbert (2009) asked: "What might we have to go away and break in order to move things forward in the 21st century for the children in your school?" (p. 45).  I think that when problems with our curriculum arise, we always want to fall back to something safe or methods that we have tried in the past.  For example, if a student comes to us not being able to read, we immediately want to brush the dust off of a phonics book and start sounding out letters.  However, if we acknowledge that our students are growing up in a technology infused environment, we have to force ourselves to try to find new solutions.  One of the mantras for reform that was always referenced when I was getting my M.Ed was you can't expect to use the same process to yield new results. If you set out to the solve the problems in the same ways that haven't worked, you shouldn't be surprised when it, again, doesn't work. Students are used to evaluating everything.  Is this product worth the price, is the game worth my time, is this comment worth my response.  They leave ratings and feedback and comments to sift through information and find what works and what doesn't in their online communities (Prensky 2006). They are innovating and using technology to seek out solutions to old problems.  Why aren't we doing the same in our classrooms?



References:
Gilbert, I. (2009). Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only idea you’ve got. Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google?: things every teacher should know (pp. 42-46). London: Routledge.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Students and learning. Web 2.0: new tools, new schools (pp. 25-44). Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.

Prensky, M. (2006). The emerging online life of a digital native. “Don’t bother me Mom, I’m learning!”: how computer and video games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can help! (pp. 40-51). St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House.

Tech
by: caromurp

PLN

Videos: Teaching a 21st century learner/ digital native

Digital Natives: Rewiring Young Brains

Are They As Savvy As They Seem?

Introduction

Hi! My name is Caroline and this is my blog for W531 Computers in Education! Throughout the summer session, I'll use this blog to capture my thoughts and impressions over the readings as well as plan for implementation of new technologies into my course content.

A quick blurb about me:  This upcoming school year will be my fourth year teaching. I taught fifth grade in Tucson, AZ at San Xavier Mission School for two years and high school Art and Theology at Providence Cristo Rey High School this past year.  Next year I am returning to Providence to teach Reading and Art.

I love teaching (and learning!) so I am taking this class to gain new insights into using technology more effectively in my classroom.  There are so many resources and I often feel overwhelmed trying to bring them together into a day to day program.  I want to take this summer to plan ways to better integrate technology rather than just making it an add-on or supplement to existing curriculum.  I am looking forward to sharing my professional journey through this course!