Is this what our students are carrying around in their backpacks today? They say you can tell a lot about a person from what they have in their purse/bag! What are the contents of this bag telling us about the 21st century student?
According to Marc Prensky in his article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach...Our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.", what Prensky and many others refer to as Digital Natives. By the looks of the contents in the bag shown above, this statement couldn't be more true. I certainly wasn't carrying around those things in my school bag back in the 80's. I guess that makes me the Digital Immigrant, "Those of us who were not born into the the digital world but have , at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology."(Prensky, 2001). However, my husband was not so thrilled by that definition, ironically he is several years older than me BUT earned his Computer Science degree and technology has always played an integral part in his career. He feels more like Kathy Schrock, a digital pioneer ( he used the term "frontier"), "someone who has grown up with the technology and adopted each technology as it came about."
Whatever we may "label" ourselves and our students, the simple fact remains...educational trends and teaching strategies are always changing but now, more than ever, we are faced with a different group of children that require a different set of tools and methodologies to engage them and prepare them for their futures! This presents challenges for those of us who would call ourselves "digital immigrant teachers" to keep up with the "digital native students" in our classrooms. As Prensky notes, "Digitial immigrant instructors are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." We need to make changes in how we teach these students to ensure they are not only engaged in their learning experiences but that they are being prepared for their digital futures. These were the same recommendations that students themselves expressed in Greenhow's article, Who are Today's Learners?.
After reading, The AASL's , Standards For the 21st Century Learner and the ISTE's NET list of standards and performance indicators, I realized that teachers have some pretty high standards and expectations to meet in order to be the most effective teachers for the 21st century student. It's no wonder that some teachers who are trying to meet these standards are feeling overwhelmed as they are barely treading water in the advancements of technology and others feel it is too much to take on and back off altogether from technology integration. Does that mean these organizations have created a seemingly impossible task by expecting digital immigrants (such as myself) to teach the 21st century learner these skills? I don't think so! But it can't be expected to happen overnight...that's where my "bag of tricks" theory and achieving a balance in our teaching strategies can help "digital immigrant" teachers reach the 21st century learner.
My "bag of tricks" theory is not that complicated. It's nothing new. In fact, as a creative, innovative teacher who loves making learning fun and authentic for my students, all it requires is reaching into my evergrowing, "tried and true" arsenal of teaching strategies that really engage my students, AS WELL as making additions to that "bag" with new tools of the 21st century. I think as educators we need to remember that we are also lifelong learners. We need to be prepared to learn these new skills and digital world advancements to better understand our students so "we can tap into, reinforce, build on, and extend their knowledge and experiences" (Greenhow, 2008) and create a balance with more traditional strategies that continue to foster growth, learning and excitement in our students.
What implications will this have on my teaching, my school and how my students learn? I hope a lot! I've already tossed around the terminology of "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" in the staffroom to see what kind of reaction I get. Mostly, I'm met with awe and a few lightbulbs going off as teachers realize that "yes, our students are different and that we are on different playing fields when it comes to our knowledge and use of technology". I'm not sure many of them have taking a lot of time to think about what that should mean to them as their teachers and how they might need to change their way of teaching. What does that mean? I think it's time for some serious professional development in our school, just to become aware of the students in front of us and those coming up!!
For me personally, I like to think that I am moving away from the title of "digital immigrant" and moving toward (what my fellow classmates have so affectionately titled a "digital dual citizen"). My students and I still enjoy some of the more traditional learning settings, such as oral presentations, groupwork projects, creating hands-on 3-D products and so on. At the same time, we are learning and growing together with such Web 2.0 tools as Voicethreads, wikis and of course my classroom blog. I love my "bag of tricks" and I am more than thrilled to be adding to it on a regular basis as I enter this digital world that my students (and my own children) have been born into.
Check out my cute digital natives! Is this a familiar site in your home?
I think my favorite quote (which is posted on my blog), fits this week's issue to a tee...
"If we teach as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." - John Dewey
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