When I first read the word digital, I think of the Internet. Today, the Internet is a major way students communicate and interact. It is also a way for them to express their thoughts and feelings to a mass audience. Today, it is an essential part of my life. I have a hard time going an entire day without checking email, blogs, websites, or facebook. I can go a day without using the Internet but it is hard. I rely on the Internet as my source of daily information. I go to it rather than reading the newspaper. News is quicker and more up to date, and free as well.
"Our students today are all 'native speakers' of the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet." (Prensky 2001) It does fear me that the students I will teach will know more about the digital world than me. They have grown up in the digital world whereas I feel like I am just getting started. I must keep up to date with their technology knowledge in order to teach to what they know. I am an immigrant of their digital world. "Those of us who are not born into the digital world but have, at some point in our lives, become fascinated and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to them, digital immigrants" (Prensky 2001). I consider myself to lie somewhere in between a digital native and a digital immigrant. I know a good deal about technology but not nearly as much as I think my students will. I have had some training in technology but not nearly to the degree that students today have.
In the classroom, I was taught the most about technology in high school. We were taught the basics of how to use the technology available to present ideas and how to research ideas. Then for homework, we were expected to use the learned ideas to research our projects. Once college came along, there was very little teaching of technology. Even the teachers only used the most basic technology. At least the high school teachers used "Smart Boards". The technology used in high school did help me get a grasp of the material better because I could visually see the ideas used.
I do believe that kids these days spend far too much time using technology but I do believe it has helped them explore the world that I could not when I was in their shoes. Being able to use a language they are used to will enable me to relate to on a personal and professional level. I can use their language to create new and interesting lesson plans. "All the students we teach have something in their lives that's really engaging--something that they do and that they are good at, something that has an engaging, creative component to it" (Prensky 2005). There really are so many routes we as teachers can take this and that's what so exciting about this digital revolution. Just using technology to communicate with the students might be the only way to get through to them. Simple things such as previously mentioned might be a way to encorporate technology into the classroom.
Trevor,
ReplyDeleteI too think I'm somewhere in between a digital immigrant and a native. I'm probably more on the native side now, but, like you, am afraid once I become a teacher and more technological advances happen, I will end up as more of an immigrant. However, I didnt' think much about the internet. I was thinking more about HOW to use things, and typing up assignments and using powerpoint. But yes--interenet! I can't go a day without it either!
It seems like your high school was way more technologically advanced than mine--or maybe that's because you're younger than me. Glad you recgnize the digital revolution can be exciting, and that it will be necessary to use technology to get through to students. Maybe we won't be such hopeless immigrants!