As a Foreign Language teacher, I really enjoyed the terms “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants”. Although according to “Educause” I am of the Net Gen (I was born in 1985, so I technically qualify), I’m having trouble deciding whether I am digitally “fluent” or not. I played Oregon Trail and Number Munchers in elementary school, and loved them both. I use the internet to check email, but I’m not sure I would if it weren’t for societal pressures to do so. I don’t enjoy updating the world on my life via Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter (but I do know what all of those are). I feel that face to face conversations and intimate “real life” relationships are far more valuable. I’d be lost without spell-check. I found the statistics in “Educause” to be shocking. I think it’s depressing that people spend so much more time playing video games than reading. I prefer real tangible books and libraries to online resources, unless I can print them out and find a nice quiet space to read them in. I almost always hand write drafts before I type them, and again I only type them because I am required to do so. I feel as if I am ignorant to much of what technology has to offer, but apparently I’m more tech-savvy than any previous generation. I believe I maintain views of the digital immigrants as well as the natives, and I’m confused as to where exactly I lie on the spectrum of digital fluency. Why must I be placed on one side or the other?
When it comes to education, I noticed both the readings emphasized interaction in the classroom. I see the benefits of incorporating technology into the classroom, especially if the funding is there, but who says that interaction has to involve technology? Both readings also seem to argue that students’ learning styles have changed and so should teaching methods. I agree completely, but is this really a new concept? I’m new to the teaching profession, but two of the current “buzzwords” in the school district for which I work are “Cooperative Learning,” and “Differentiated Instruction,” both of which emphasize group work/socailization skills and teaching to different learning styles, including hands-on learners. Constructivistic /“learner-centered” classrooms aren’t novel concepts.
I think technology can and should be utilized in education, but only as a percentage of the overall learning experience. Interactive learning should occur much more frequently than it currently does, but that doesn’t mean that technology is the only tool to use to accomplish that. I also think the readings don’t take the issue of funding seriously enough. I’m all for using additional technologies in my classroom, but I can’t even get a working laptop, let alone a digital projector or Smart Board. Technology seems to be outdated as soon as it’s created, I can’t afford to keep up and neither can my school district or the students I teach (a very large percentage of whom live below the poverty line). As the articles mentioned, most students believe that nothing can replace the expertice teachers have to offer or the overall social experience of school, and I agree. I think there are many different learning styles, and not all today’s students can be classified as “tech-savvy learners,” I certaintly can’t be.
I really liked this quote from the Digital Natives article:
It's not actually clear to me which is harder - "learning new stuff" or "learning new ways to do old stuff." I suspect it's the latter.
I do think students today learn differently than previous generations. I just think we need to develop new methods of instruction, which include technology but do not rely solely on it. A variety of teaching methods should be utilized, and technology should be one of many.
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