Is It A Digital Revolution?

I recently watched a number of videos regarding the role of technology in our student’s lives. I found these videos very interesting. They touch on some very key points. Many of them included points about how students are more exposed, they share many of the private thought in very public forums. Conversations and information once only shared with the closest of friends in posted all over multi social networds for the consumption of 300+ friends. One young student even commented “most people only really have 50 best friends” I thought to myself “What?”. “50 best friends?”. I have 2.
Another point being that students think they are mutitasking well, but educators disagree and a study done on those students who were excessive multitaskers showed that these students do not perform any of their tasks well. Professors found that even the smartest people amoung us, students at MIT, are passing exams in which they should be scoring nearly 100% just by listening to lecture and doing assigned reading and are only scoring 75% on these exams. Students are unable to give anything their undivided attention. At another point in the video series an educator at a school which was saved from near ruins by technology, commented that we are preparing students for a job market that will require them to be problem solvers. This seems like a paradox to me. How will students be problem solvers if they cannot focus on one thing at a time and are kidding themselves into believing they are great multitaskers?
But with all of these interesting points, the one that struck me the most was that with the technological advancement of the written word and the printing press came the loss of oral traditions and the need to memorize poetry and stories. So is it really that we are embarking on a change so revolutionary are the development of the written word? And are all of the other questions being asked just part of the process?

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

I agree and disagree with Prensky. I agree that today’s students are “Digital Natives, they are not just comfortable with technology, it is a part of them. They interact with each other more comfortably through technology then they do face-to-face. They have never known a world where the answers to every question they have is not at their fingertips. They don’t need to memorize much of anything any more. The world is fast moving and they are at ease with all of it.

I agree that the rest of us or “Digital Immigrants” we have varying levels of comfort many of us have only a slight accent, but others of us maybe eager learners of this new language but we speak with a heavy accent. We find today’s world chaotic and stressful. We love our few minutes of quiet book reading. But I’m not certain we are truly that different.

I agree that as educators we need to change our strategies and lessons to make them more appealing to these Digital Natives. I think that all great educators have been those teachers that found ways to make material relevant to their audience. They tapped into the interests of their students; they brought their subject into the world of their students. I don’t think anything has really changed other than technology is the key link between the two worlds. Students in their basic make-up are still the same as they always have been. The cliques in high school are still the same. The struggle with popularity is still the same. Students fall in love and suffer from broken hearts all the same. The difference is how all of this is communicated. I think that students are more open and comfortable with exposing themselves and their thoughts through mass communication.

This new generation is once again using the written word much more that my generation. We spoke on the phone, watched TV and had sleepovers. I am much more comfortable expressing my thoughts orally. Today’s students text, blog, tweet, facebook, and instant message each other. Much of their communication is abbreviated but it is still the use of the written word. They are more comfortable expressing themselves in writing. As a result their oral communication skills are suffering. I agree that we need to introduce technology into our classrooms and into all new teachers pedagogy’s but we also need to help our students acquire new skills. Students need to be able to concentrate on one thing for a period of time; we need all of our future surgeons to have this skill. They need to learn to block out the outside world and concentrate. I have observed in my current job that most young people have trouble communicating orally in formal settings. Environments where these skills are needed may be diminishing but they still exist and we need to help our students develop these skills.

What I have found is that students don’t think deeply about most of what they are learning. As they have so much information at their disposal they seem less analytical, reflective. Prensky touch on this topic as well. I thought his point about instructor debriefing was brilliant. I think that if we incorporate Digital Game-Based learning in our lessons it is vital to walk our students through the process of reflecting on their learning. This is a skill that we need to help them develop so that our society is progressive and always improving. The role of the teacher is no longer to disseminate information, which our students can get with a click of a button; it is now our job to help them learn how to use this information to improve themselves and the world around them.