After reading Jennifer Spiegel's article that evaluates the usage of Marc Prensky's terminology on digital natives and digital immigrants with today’s learners, I am of the belief that these terms are slightly outdated. I acknowledge their purpose for when Prensky initially coined these concepts as a way to juxtapose the generations that have been immersed with technology since birth versus the ones that were introduced to it in adulthood. For example, I would consider myself to be a digital native according to Prensky’s definition, as I feel as though I have grown up since day 1 being around video games, television, computers, etc. and learned how to navigate this world on my own. However, with my grandma for example, I have had to teach her many different functions on her iPhone, like how to Facetime me and how to upload a picture to her home background. I think the terminology digital immigrant could be applicable to her as she was not raised in a technological world and is still finding ways to adjust to it. I totally agree with Spiegel on several of the points she made about the way these terms are used. Firstly, just because our students are “digital natives” according to the definition, do they have access to technology at their house? Are they being taught responsibly how to use it? Are they being monitored by their family on their usage? Especially as an elementary educator, I really resonated with her point that students cannot be expected to know the “professional” or “academic” usages of technology just because they are proficient in it with their social lives. I totally agree that it must be embedded into the elementary curriculum for students to learn how to type and manage files so students can integrate technology more efficiently with content related assignments in future grades. It really bothers me that the school I work at instructs students in grades K-2 to hand-write all writing assignments, and then in grade 3 have to switch to typing because it is a requirement to type paragraphs for the ELA RICAS assessment. How are students able to do their best work on RICAS if they are not given explicit designated instruction on how to type during school? I also agreed with the point that students love to use technology to communicate in private spaces with their friends. I was SHOCKED the first time my students used Dojo Island in class, essentially it is kind of like the modern day of Club Penguin or Webkinz where students can have their own avatar and navigate a world and see their friends. These spaces are so important for kids to connect with each other online. They were literally screaming across the classroom when they would find a friend in the game and be like “X I SEE YOU!!!!” This reading is making me recognize how I channel their excitement that they already demonstrate with shared technology into productive learning, like for example using technology to teach them how to send messages through an online learning platform to each other as they are developing early literacy skills.
Michele our opinions are pretty aligned, and I liked a lot of the things you had to say about both authors. Also, moving forward I'm definitely going to try and flesh out my ideas a bit more because I think you did a grate job of doing that compared to me.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your critique of our school and the transition to third grade-- why are we not starting to introduce students to typing earlier on in their academic careers, especially if we want to be responsible teachers preparing students for a very real technosphere and technological demands that they will walk into in third grade? We know students need explicit instruction, why are we not using explicit instruction to teach students how to type (spoken from an ex-third grade teacher at our school-- the most we do is suggest they go on typing club maybe once every few months... I remember being explicitly taught finger positions for a QWERTY keyboard)? Additionally, the fact that we only push writing on a chromebook to prepare students for RICAS (in addition to Crescendo) really just goes to show the disgusting obsession that the school has with grades and NOT with the general success of students as they matriculate into older grades...
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