1. Are Kids Different Because of Digital Media?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-PT3vEjw5g&feature=channel
2. Henry Jenkins on Digital Media and Learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INhOB9gWPiA&feature=channel
3. A Vision of Students Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
Please discuss the role of education as it relates to digital technologies and digital natives. What would you consider a practical solution to the digital divide?
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8 comments:
How silly am I? I did not even read ahead to see that the video I posted was the first video on today's list.
I love the one girl's comment on books being obsolete. It is completely true. 1000s of titles are turning digital. There is an App for it on the Iphone. If the Iphone has an App then we all know it is in the here and now and sticking around. I used to subscribe to a website wherein I could download not only journal and newspaper articles, magazines, but also full length books - generally textbook in nature. My original PDE topic years back when I first began in this program was looking at textbooks - use, layout, presentation, how schools use, ect... and how it is all changing. I was swayed against it at the time, but web 2.0 tools were just gaining popularity in the mainstream and had yet to explode. I do not think that certain people could foresee such a change in textbook use so quickly.
Second video - I completely agree that we need to stop fighting against the web 2.0 tools that are seen as primarily social networking tools and use them for to their advantage and in productive ways. It is interesting that Henry uses words like lock-down and deskilled. I think many students (especially urban students) have actively learned how to not-learn. This coupled with the lock-down of tools (that motivate students) is a powerful mechanism for immobilizing any learning from occurring within schools.
I love the fact that Union combines traditional and non-traditional learning methods. I just returned a text messaged to a friend letting her know that I am "in class" right now. Class may be in my living room and my method for communicating my computer - but it is the learning environment that makes sense for me right now. On-line courses could also be a viable learning tool for high school students to participate in when done in conjunction with face-to-face time. It is one thing to be a graduate student having the skills and discipline to maintain self-structured activities - it is completely another to be 16 and do it.
(Important to note -The text I received was about going to the beach and it has not stopped raining in 3 weeks until now - if I was 16 I would have been out the door already!)
Third Video - I have transcribed most of the third video for us. I will put it in a separate blog. Wow! Many of these issues are not new issues at all, but we are now really being forced to examine them within the context of technology and its uses. With the creation of this video and all the other videos like it - I believe we are being told, and not asked, as a collective whole to change. Younger generations are going to force us to change whether we like it or not.
PS - I love learning in my living room. It is a safe environment that is comfortable for me. So different from stuffy classrooms with hard chairs, bad lighting, and often a non-stimulating decor!
"If these walls could talk what would they say?" (Wall)
"If students learn what they do..." (Chair)
"What are they learning sitting here?" (Chair)
"The information is up here." (Chalk Board)
"Follow Away." (Chalk Board)
(Of course walls & desks cannot talk." (Chair)
"But students can." (Chair)
(Holding up signs on paper/laptop)
"My average class size is 115."
"18% of my teachers know my name."
"I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me. Only 26% are relevant to my life."
"I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open."
"My neighbor paid for class but never comes."
"I will read 8 books this year. 2300 web pages & 1282 Facebook profiles."
"I will write 42 pages for class this semester and over 500 pages of email."
"I get 7 hours of sleep each night."
"I spend 1 1/2 hours of watching tv each night."
"I spend 3 1/2 hours a day online."
"I listen to music 2.5 hours hours a day."
"I spend 2 hours on my cell phone."
"Spend 3 hours in class."
"2 hours eating."
"I work 2 hours every day."
"3 hours studying."
"That's a total of 26.5 hours per day."
"I am a multi-tasker. (I have to be)"
"I will be $20,000 in debt after graduation."
"I'm one of the lucky ones."
"Over 1 billion people make less than $1 a day."
"This laptop costs more than some people in the world make in a year."
"When I graduate I will probably have a job that doesn't exist today."
"Filling this out won't help me get there.(bubble sheet) Or deal with.(arrows point to people)"
All hold up signs.
"I did not create the problems, but they are my problems."
"Some have suggested that technology can save us..."
"Some have suggested that technology alone can save us..."
"I Facebook through most of my classes."
"I bring my laptop to class but I am not working on class stuff."
Sounds like someone is inspired!
This set of videos was the most interesting to me because it raised the issue of multitasking. I’m a proponent of integrating new technologies and ideas into the classroom, but I have always been incredibly suspicious of “multi-tasking.” I have a job that requires me to do answer the phone, answer email, greet people, etc. all at once and I hate it! For years I worked in a Writing Center that was essentially an open classroom filled with tables. While you tried to read and/or talk to a student you could hear the other tutors talking, the phone, students chatting, etc. After five years of that kind of chaos I couldn’t think straight. Literally.
And then I came to hate multi-tasking. I discourage it in my writing students because I don’t know how one can create meaningful art (or anything with meaning really) without deep focus. If I am going to argue against anything about the new generation’s set of skills it is obviously this one. Recently, I read a neurologist’s study about multi-tasking. Unlike one being engaged in art or meditation (when deep focus is created), multitasking has another kind of effect on the brain. And it isn’t a good one.
Calling up the idea of multi-tasking reminded me of the actual experience of being in a classroom with students who have their laptops out and are downloading from iTunes, looking at Wikipedia, posting to Facebook, etc. This diminishes the classroom environment because the student isn’t participating and other students because annoyed and/or resentful of the inattention. This is an issue in terms of classroom management, and I am reminded that technology has its place in education but it cannot become education. Education has to be about formulating ideas, creating, discovering connections, etc. It can’t be about hiding behind one’s laptop rather than engaging.
I understand that seems like an archaic opinion, but I don’t know a way that students can learn creative writing by staring at their screens. Writing is about experience—any kind of experience, so certainly I include technology in that, but in the workshop (classroom) students must engage in discussion.
Seeing this video reminded me that students now seem more comfortable engaging in invisible, online environments (they will talk endlessly via IM or Facebook), but they never say a word to me in person.
I am reminded the call for balance and focus. Students have to learn to use technology when it is appropriate and useful. Just as technology immigrants must learn to apply their technologies and ideas when it is useful.
My practical solution to the digital divide is balance. Educators should include technologies when it is necessary and applicable. We should expect students to be focused, well-mannered, and present to learn in the classroom as we always have. Compromise seems to be the answer.
Katherine raises an interesting issue and no Katherine, I don’t think your comments are archaic. You know the saying, “different strokes for different folks.” We talk about the digital divide and tend to focus very much on the digital natives; however the other side of the coin is that everyone, in some way or another, is caught in the midst of this. I tend to agree with Katherine in the area of multitasking. No matter how hard I try I just can’t do it. A classic example is when I am engaged in video game play. My wife becomes upset with me as she tries to talk to me while I am busy blasting away my opponents (cough, cough, or vice versa). Anyway, I can relate to Katherine. However, the fact remains that many young people today just communicate differently. In fact there are digital records of their entire life. From the baby sonogram to pictures on Face book, to their internet browser history and instant messaging, it is an ongoing digital record. I was shopping for a cell phone just the other day when a girl and her dad were negotiating the fact that she needed unlimited text messaging. I told him that this is not alarming as my own students have admitted texting up to 250 messages a day. There is no denying that digital natives are different. And the effects of technology are far reaching; maybe it was a classroom for us in the past, but look at us now. So how do we strike this balance is a key question. And how will we learn? How will we teach? Will knowledge be held within the walls of the university or will it be a collective of cyber information?
It seems to me that we should treat digital tools just like all the other educational tools that have been invented throughout history. Limits and rules should be imposed (and digitally policed) so that students and teachers can take advantage of the breath of information available on the interent and the advances in tools everything from calculation to alphabetizing to analysis that digital equipment bring us.
Ladies, I believe this has been a most fruitful conversation. It has been a pleasure to discuss digital natives, the digital divide and the future of education with all of you. Thank you again for your thoughts and I hope that at the very least we can continue the dialogue with our students, colleagues, and educators. God bless you.
I wish I has been home last night to further indulge in this conversation. Multi-tasking is a necessary evil.
I have way more demands put on me professionally then either of my professional parents did at my age.
I find it interesting that we live in a world where technology has made it, supposedly, easier to function - has saved us time.
What am I doing with all of this extra time?
It has been a pleasure to have have participated in this scholarly discussion. I will be hosting an online peer day in July and I hope you can all make it!! I would love to further dialogue!!!!
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