Please view the following 2 videos and then explain why you think that digital natives are so attracted to digital technologies?
1. Digital Worlds: Kids Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fu4vmiXxwc&feature=related
2. The Digital Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ZW49n5UO8&feature=related
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http://peterpappas.blogs.com/
Check out this video on Peter Pappas' blog. It is the first video clip. I think it goes nicely with the discussion we are embarking upon. I think this video goes along very well with first video posted here to watch. It is another demonstration on how children, even those in elementary schools, are changing the way we educate.
"Are we ready for them?" asks BestBuy???? NO!!! Oh my, I am so not ready as a teacher or a parent. My son (2 on July 28) has been working the DVD player since December. That is nuts to me. As an educator I have reflected back on all of the professional development that was offered throughout the school year and almost none of it was technology related...unless you needed to learn how to use Microsoft Word o the Smartboard. How can we change our pedagogy as educators to reflect current trends if we cannot even navigate word as a collegiate whole?!? I went to an inservice yesterday where most of the teachers had nothing to say that was positive about our students or their capability to learn. These two videos are a clear indication that not only are our children learning, but they are learning skills that are higher order. The videos also clearly demonstrate that our children are multi-taskers and collaborators, but their skills go ways beyond this.
I think commitment to technology and the new formats that are being used by children are making a generation that is more creative, increasingly hands-on, and equipped problem solvers...just to name a few.
On the other hand - I also question if privacy as we have known it is changing? The media world of making of breaking people is not merely left up to the paparazzi. People can become instantly famous, or infamous..., because of an (un)authorized post to Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, or any number of social networking sites. People openly share so much of themselves on these sites as well. Has our advancing technology changed more than how we educate and learn, but also how we live as a society of people?
I think this video demonstrates a good start in changing how we educate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
The video is also on Peter Pappas' site as well if you looked through there more.
I think Harlee has brought a great video to our discussion. I believe that this generation of children is living in a digital world. It is as if they (children) have an intimate understanding of technology. For them they are truly living in a digital world. It is also very exciting to see how these technologies can be used for education.
I think Harlee, also brings up an interesting question about the other side of the conversation. Harlee asks how can we change our pedagogy as educators to reflect current trends if we cannot even navigate word as a collegiate whole. I would like to add if you guys think there is any hope of true educational reform, especially if we as a collective of educators are not necessarily living in a digital world and are essentially (digital immigrants) trying to teach digital natives?
As far as the issue of web 2.0 technologies such as youtube, myspace and the like, it is difficult to tell what the ultimate effect of such technology will bring to a society. In my humble opinion I agree with Harlee that it extends beyond the boundary of just education. I mean, it seems as if we are in the midst of a societal revolution/evolution. Psychologically, socially, and educationally we are changing. Teenagers text message more than they speak sometimes. What kind of effect does this have on our language and culture?
Let me start out by stating that Harlee is Abby and I apologize for the nickname. I use it for all of my screen names so I don't forget it. Which says a lot about a 32 year old and her memory and experience with technology. The Web 2.0 generation has learned ways to memorize so much information and to keep it compartmentalized in a manner that I am perplexed by. True, we all have our filing system whether in our heads or on our desks in which we are accustomed to, but this generation has made it an art form. How do we build on that to get them to connect to current curriculum or should the curriculum our states mandate be changed altogether? Should we focus more on technology and its many offerings and less on memorizing facts that can be found literally at our finger tips? As an example, I like to believe we can get to a place wherein we start with age-old documents like the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States (without having to memorize sections) and then move more quickly into the dissection of more relevant documents such as current political speeches both foreign and domestic using Web 2.0 mechanisms. Sadly, we should all be at this place now.
In the spring semester I taught an English 101 course to incoming university freshman. What was most fascinating to me was the ways in which they organize and deal with information.
As Abby pointed out, the way we deal with information as a culture has changed so much that teaching facts doesn't make sense any more. Teaching students what to do with the facts (i.e., critical thinking) seems to be the key to them.
I enjoyed my experience teaching a roomful of 18-year-olds for a number of reasons, but mostly because I was, as I said, simply fascinated by the ways in which they gathered, sorted, and classified their information. Many of my students brought laptops to class, and all of them had cell phones. This was the single thing they all seemed to have in common. When someone would raise an example that other didn't know it could be easily accessed and shared. This was a dyanmic and somewhat daunting way to teach! I think it required more trust and flexibility between us, because I had to surrender the traditional role of "authority." In another way, other instructors I shared this experience with were annoyed because they felt I was letting things "interfere" with the curriculum. Those other things seem to me to be reality! How can I stop YouTube or Wikipedia? I think most institutions tell instructors to be wary of these things, and we reinforce that to students, but they will use what they can access.
I agree with both of you that deep, institutional changes must be made so that teachers know how to instruct the digital natives. Insisting on the old way certainly isn't going to address the issues being raised here.
I think it is both interesting and ironic that one of the videos was a corporation, Best Buy, asking if they are ready to serve this generation. Maybe technology has become so fluid in our culture because it is about accessibility and things like education aren't accessible to everyone--I certainly haven't seen any traditional universities producing videos asking how "we" better serve the students. And that isn't criticism as much as it is observation. Maybe if education, of any kind, were less insistent about traditional methods being the only way students can be taught.
We are facing a revolution, and it seems to be as far-reaching as iTunes, Wifi, and text messaging.
Access is definitely key to change. I found it interesting that the videos centered around children who seemed to come from affluent homes wherein no one went without access to technology. Only one time was a reference made to a lack of access to cell phones and that was by an 8 year old. At no time did I gain insight into the urban digital native from the perspective of interviewer or corporation (in this case Best Buy). These children too are using technology in similar, if not the same, ways. Their access at times may be more limited, but many have access to cell phones and are glued to them. One of my co-teachers purchased a cell phone blocker for the classroom. It was annoying. I think she should have used their cell phones as a means of learning and communicating. Why not? Engagement is necessary to learning and if we cannot engage through the curriculum itself then we must turn to other methods.
Did either of you watch the video on twitter that I posted. Like you Katherine, I think that woman too was brave to step out of social norms and into reality.
Additionally Katherine, I think you summed up perfectly what I was talking about with facts versus critical thinking. I am actually looking to transition form K-12 to higher education over the next few years. In looking for a university I think it is critical to find a system that allows for new and forward thinking... something that Union was founded on. Is it possible?
Katherine, you also stated that using nontraditional teaching methods were daunting but doable. I think back to student teaching or being a new teacher and that learning and/or doing was daunting as well. Do we get an out as educators once we receive a masters or doctorate to stop learning b/c we get to "pass" on daunting things? I think people believe this. I think it makes people lazy. I love the fact that as Union learners we come together and engage in such scholarship. I was very rarely, if ever, afforded this opportunity as an undergrad or grad student. Isn't that sad? All students at all ages should be given opportunities to engage in meaningful scholarship even if it is by blogging!!!!!!
Digital natives, in some ways, may be no different than previous generations. They are interested in discovery, methods of displaying creativity, exercising independence, and challenging limits.
I am 46 years-old and can recall some of my first desires to discover, display creativity, exercise independence, and challenge limits.
For instance, I can remember wanting to know who lived in what my friends in my neighborhood called the "spooky" house across the street. One day, curiosity propelled me to make the long walk up the driveway. I met an elderly man whose wife had died years earlier and who had since cut himself off from society. I think I was 8 or 9 years-old at the time and I became obsessed with him and wanting him to join society again. My efforts failed, but my desire for more discovery was fueled.
As for displaying creativity, I am the daughter of people who made their living in the arts and had tremendous access to creative outlets. But I remember my Fourth Grade year when I decided that I had found my creative outlet. It was writing and my teacher had carbon paper in her desk that she gave to me. I started writing stories to share with my classmates and eventually created a newspaper. My parents gave me an electric typewriter and with boxes of carbon paper, I churned out hundreds of pages of the Stadium Drive (the name of my elementary school.)
Displaying independence for me (and probably countless others) came when I got my first two-wheel bike and was allowed to ride down the street unaccompanied. I have so many memories of challenging limits that it is simply impossible to begin recounting them. They range from driving my sister's car when I was just 14 years-old to publishing an underground newspaper in middle school.
I listed these memories because I believe that they illustrate the same natural urges that all children face. Technology, for digital natives, is the urge to explore the spooky house, the desire to create, the motivation for independence, and the compulsion to test limits. I think it is extremely natural for digital natives to be drawn to technology for exploration and expression. It certainly requires less physical movement than earlier generations had to perform in order to accomplish the same objectives, but the mental processes, I believe, are the same and are extremely natural.
Technology is there. It would be unnatural for digital natives not to explore it, enjoy it, discover it, and try to use it to shape their futures.
This YouTube Video illustrates these points particularly well, I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvlJ1aA2p9g&feature=PlayList&p=823EFB31F6790E2C&index=6
The StudyBudy group that they created is merely using existing technology for what a prior generation did with the technology of that time period.
I think that it is important, as all of you have discussed, to embrace the changes. But I think there is a tendency - on some people's parts - to fear them. That fear can lead to a failure to grow and change. All of the fears about privacy, for instance, are probably warranted to a degree. But I think that there is a danger of allowing those fears to cut off opportunity for discovery. When I was a child, I had friends whose parents feared allowing them to have their pictures taken for the school newspaper because they worried that stalkers would prey upon them. Did it happen? Perhaps. But was it likely? Absolutely not. So I think it is important to understand technology as part of an ongoing evolution and to see it in perspective and not fear it.
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