In one of my classes, we viewed this video: Did You Know? It's a short presentation by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod describing where we are in the digital world. Did you know that there are over 1 trillion web pages? (Well, 1 trillion and ONE, since I just created this one today - *grin*) Did you know that there are over 240,000,000 TVs in the USA - with over 2,000,000 in bathrooms??? Do we need TVs in bathrooms? I actually never felt the need for a TV in the bathroom - I was usually busy with other things, so to speak...
The point is .... that our world is digital-crazy, and we are only going to become more so. One time, after showing my niece and nephew their photo I had just taken on my phone, I said to my sister, "These kids will never know what it is like to have to wait to see how the picture comes out." It isn't lost on me either, that I didn't take their picture on a camera even - I took it on my PHONE.
My niece and nephew are six years old. They don't know what a cassette tape is or that telephone handsets used to be attached to the base with a squiggly cord and had a dial that slowly turned to access the numbers. They don't know that in the "olden days" computer screens were black and print was neon green. To them, appliances like microwaves, computers, and cell phones aren't novel: they're the norm. And these aren't kids who are exposed to tons of digital gadgets like wii's (except for mine), smart phones (again, except for mine) and iPods (yet, again, except for mine... *sigh*). They rarely watch network TV and have limited computer time - and only for educational websites. Yet, these kids can figure out how to move all my icons on my iPhone and navigate through a website to find the activity that they want to do. No one had to teach them these skills - I truly believe that kids today have an innate sense of how to manipulate media.
Apple Computer (and our textbook) defines today's children as "Digital Students" or "Digital Kids" (Shelly, 15). Today's children are media savvy, digitally inclined, and can and will do more things at once than we did as kids. The "ancient" items that I mentioned in the previous paragraph were all staples in my childhood. Yet they barely exist in today's world. Does that mean that the media that our children are exposed to today will not exist when they are my age?
Shelly elaborated by saying, "Today's digital kids like watching TV, listening to music on their iPods, listening to their favorite shows via podcasts, talking on their cell phones, texting or instant messaging their friends, and blogging. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this scenario is that they are doing all of these activities while completing their math homework assignment" (15-16).
How do we, as educators, deal with that?
That's a big question. Even bigger is the one posed by one of the video's authors, Dr. Scott McLeod on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant: "Are we doing what is best for our students, or are we doing what is most convenient for us?"
I'd like to say that we are doing what is best for our students. I would LOVE to be able to say that. But the reality is that we are clueless. In my opinion, education, and educational theories, for years, went along with the philosophy something like this: "Well, it worked in the past...." And, I guess the educational system was okay in the past - lumping everyone together and teaching all learners as if they were the same - with identical needs and interests. (I mean, think about it - some students in the past learned in one-room school houses with one teacher who taught all grades simultaneously!) And, all of a sudden, it occurred to educators that we had problems. Little Johnny couldn't read. We then compared ourselves to other countries and the outlook was grim: Little Johnny couldn't read, write, calculate, analyze, interpret, evaluate, problem solve, and create like Little Lin or Little Jaleel or Little Sven.
Reform! Reform! Reform! Multiple intelligences! Cooperative learning! Behaviorism! Cognitivism! Constructivism! Teach this! Teach that! A new method, a new idea, a new theory...
Were we too late? I think so.
Because, it seems to me that we are trying to play catch-up. Catch-up on years and years of "what we should have done" and we are scrambling to identify with our media-infused students. Education didn't stay current to where their current students were academically, socially, and emotionally. Sure, over the years, we put a computer in our classrooms. We even hooked it up to the internet. And we even allowed out students access to that computer. That was HUGE. But not enough.
An example: I taught elementary music, and I left in 2003. When I was teaching, I had a computer in my office that was hooked up to the Internet and I, alone, was allowed to use it. I had a computer in my classroom for students to use, which was not hooked up to the Internet, but the students never used it because the tech administrator never installed the software which came with the textbooks - and I wasn't allowed to. I cannot tell you how often I requested the installation, but back then, technology was considered "supplemental" to my students and not "essential". My classroom computer was a dust-catcher. The kids would say, "can we use the computer?" and I would say, "when it's hooked up". Kids were, and are, hungry for technology.
Some students were pretty good with computers. They'd offer to install the software for me. They would describe how they found this or that out on the Internet. Then this blast of tech-savvy students became the normal student.
In the past, we did what was most convenient for the educator. It's a lot easier to teach students in a lump. However, we don't have lumpy kids. We have individuals - who we now know learn differently than our ancestors and even from their peers. That is where technology can really make a difference to kids. We can individualize education and make it more relevant to our students. It is essential for educators to not only offer technological experiences for our students but to integrate technology into every aspect of their learning. We are preparing our students for a more digitally-charged future - one that we cannot even imagine. We need to constantly update our skills as teachers in order to remain current (and, dare I say, ahead) of our students.
To me, it seems like an impossible task. But, I accept the mission.
References:
Fisch, K. & McLeod, S. (2009). Did you know? 4.0. Retrieved from http://www1.teachertube.com
/viewVideo.php?video_id=126933&title=Did_You_Know__4_0
McLeod, S. (2007). Well? What's Your Answer? Retrieved from http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/05
/well_whats_your.html
Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the
classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.
I agree, it is amazing how far we have come just in taking pictures. It is hard to imagine the time when we had to wait until we had taken 36 pictures and then bringing it into a store to have it developed to wait again at least an hour to see if our pictures turned out. The students we teach get "instant" feedback on the picture they took and whether they want to keep it or delete it. With this said, as teachers, we need to remember that "instant" feedback is the "norm" for them and anything less is becoming unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked about "Little Johnny" learning to read. I caught myself asking the question, in the technology world we live in, will Johnny have to learn to read if we have the technology to have it read to him? As an educator this makes me cringe, but still I feel it is a logical question. During a faculty meeting last week we watched a video on Safari Montage of a professor at a school that does not know how to write but has written two books. With the government pushing the "No Child Left Behind," technology can provide these types of modifications to those students that have learning disabilities.
I am up for the challenge of utilizing technology in every aspect of our student's learning. This will be an exciting but never-ending task, because the technology is always advancing and it is hard to predict the direction technology will take in the future.
Hi, Tricia,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. (You are my first visitor I think!!) I found the comment about the man who couldn't write but had authored two books quite interesting. After a moment, though, I thought, "Well isn't that what they used to do when writing someone's biography?". - or did I misunderstand you?
You hit the nail on the head with your statements about instant feedback for kids. Are we raising a generation of kids who will have poor impulse control and a need for instant gratification? That can lead to some difficult situations. How do you teach patience?
Thanks for posting!
~ Christi. :o)
Fascinating writing! I absolutely resonate with what you address here. Thanks for your thoughts - we need them in our classrooms.
ReplyDelete"Students are hungry for technology."
ReplyDeleteThis statement from your blog really caught my attention. I have to agree with this sentence because my 4th grade students crave technology. In my classroom the dust no longer settles on computers and electronic white boards, they are utilized to their fullest potential. With these 'digital learners' entering our classroom with eagerness to explore technology, I am gracious that I am taking this course to help me with my knowledge of technology. I am lucky enough to have technology at my fingertips,and I am motivated to use it. Sometimes there are mishaps in the classroom, but those mishaps are taken as learning gains for myself and my students. By using programs like Brainpop!, Study James, and virtual field trips, I am able to transform a dull science lesson to an engaging technology adventure. As teachers we need to expose our students to knew ways of learning and I believe it is with technology. It is around to stay and will only increase!