Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants

Digital natives vs. digital immigrants
Or Can we co-exist?

My name is Katrina, and I am a digital immigrant. After reading the article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, I can see how the term is applied to the technology skills of some of my generation. As the article points out, our kids are born into the digital age, growing up with a language we have limited experience with, and applying themselves to learning from a knowledge base we did not have access to when we were students. Over the past four weeks, I have had the opportunity to work collaboratively with some digital natives. It’s impressive how quick these individuals gather and apply information from the internet. It’s almost as if they don’t have to think about what they are doing. This, I discovered, has a lot to do with hypertext. I just found out what hypertext is. I’ve been using this feature for my own studies, but I didn’t know what it was called.

As an immigrant, I do worry that my students will forget how to use, or not have access to, the learning materials I used growing up. Reading in some cases is a lost art form. Prensky (2001) interjects that, “as a result of the ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it today [video games, cell phones, computers, CD players, the internet], today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors” (Prensky, 1). Sitting down and reading a book for fun is not what kids are doing for fun today. Our challenge is to find out how to make reading fun so our students don’t loose the skill.

In order for teachers today to get their students to take them seriously and consider picking up on the lost art of reading, teachers with limited computer skills need to learn more about the digital world. In accordance with this, section three of the NETS standards for teachers’ works to get teachers better prepared. We need to provide a compromise between learning opportunities. Kids need access to the digital world, but they also need to know how to function in the hard copy world. Teachers can do this by learning how to use technology to access needed literature on-line, how to convert drill activities into interactive formats, and how to work collaboratively with students on digitally based reading and writing projects. It is a stretch to learn how to teach old content using new methods, but it’s not a new concept.

Built in reflection and critical thinking must be a part of teaching to digital natives. Sections three and four of the NETS standards for students discusses the implementation of curriculum that will encourage students to think more critically about the resources they access on-line, or distinguish between useful and non-usable information. Reflection skills are lost because the learning experience is moving so quickly, cutting out actual experiences with the learning. How likely is it that digital learning games will address the multitude of learning styles? Educators are being taught to recognize multiple intelligences in all lessons as the fourth NETS standards for teachers implies.

Finding ways to make technology a part of learning is important for today’s learners because technology is an important part of their lives. If we continue to ignore the potential that games and computers offer, we will lose our students to a void of misdirected learning. The problem with providing technology based education is that access is limited to schools that can afford to use it. Sure most schools have computer labs, but the level of instruction this article is talking about demands that every student have access to a computer at all times. Are we creating a society of division within our own national boundaries? Does poverty become the dividing line between who learns and who doesn’t? If kids in less affluent communities can not access the same information as more affluent students, then they are not able to learn equally. People who create legislation, forcing students to test and achieve the same academic proficiencies across the board are not seeing fundamental differences that exist from person to person across socio-economic borders. That’s my rant. As a future teacher, I am excited about the opportunities that technology offers the classroom today.

Analyzing Kosslyn's Clear and to the Point with NETS Standards

The first chapter of Clear and to the Point by Stephen M. Kosslyn meets several of the NETS standards for teachers. The eight principles attached to Kosslyn’s goals of connecting with the audience, directing and holding attention, and promoting understanding and memory are recognized in the NETS standards.

Beginning with standard one, teachers are required to use their knowledge of subject matter to facilitate student learning in a format that utilizes both face to face and virtual environments. PowerPoint presentations can do this by bringing together a body of information in a format that can make learning interactive as well as informative. By meeting this standard, teachers meet Kosslyn’s first goal of effective PowerPoint use by connecting with the audience through language, displays, and concepts that show knowledge of the subject matter (Kosslyn, 5).

Standard two can be met in the opportunity for teachers to design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning. This standard falls under Kosslyn’s second goal of directing and holding audience attention, by modeling the principals of salience and perceptual organization. Students learn that presenting information that draws attention to the information rather than background, and visual and audio effects guides and holds audience attention. The perks of the PowerPoint program can be fun and innovative tools, but knowing how to use them appropriately is the key to effective presentations.

Standard three can also be connected with the goals and principals that Kosslyn outlines in his book. met when teachers model the use of PowerPoint as a means to effectively utilize digital tools locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning. This standard meets Kosslyn’s third goal which is to promote understanding and memory. Gathering and synthesizing information in a format that makes the “form compatible with the meaning” helps the audience to understand and retain the information that is being presented (Kosslyn, 9).

NETS Standards and Claymation

All six of the NETS Standards seem to apply to the claymation assignment. Creativity and innovation is an obvious starting point. Using clay to create a project that involves some kind of process is a great way to get kids thinking about how processes work. In doing this assignment, students not only learn to create a model of a process, they also learn to work cooperatively creating a group vision of their project. Through communication and collaboration, students learn how to gather information as individual team members and then work on integrating the information into the whole project. The use of Quick time technology allows students to publish their claymation videos in a public viewing format. Students will also use research in gathering information for their project presentation. Knowing how to gather information and use it effectively will help students to organize, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information for their projects. Students will also use problem solving and decision making skills as they decide job responsibilities within their group. Each project team member will need to know what their job is and be able to work with their team members to get the project done in a respectful and timely manner. In all of this, the actual hands on use of the digital camera as well as learning how to manipulate information in Quick Time will help students to understand and use technology, to use applications effectively, and to troubleshoot problems in order to complete the assignment.