I consider myself to be more of a digital native than a digital immigrant. I haven't grown up with a family computer all of my life, but for most of it I have. I might not be hip to ever new software that is out to date, but I do know my way around enough for technology to be an aid more than a burden.
When I was younger, technology was used as an aid to my education. I remember making slide show presentations for projects or videos for group presentations. These were a lot of fun and helped me get more excited and involved in the lesson. I also remember technology being a negative aid that hindered my critical thinking. When we started using the internet to help us with research papers, I noticed the other students in my class and myself becoming really good friends with the copy and paste tools. It became a lot easier to write papers without really doing any critical thinking about the subject of the paper. Mark Prensky says, In our twitch-speed world, there is less and less time and opportunity for reflection, and this development concerns man people.” I agree. I think that technology has made it easier to produce something of fairly good quality without putting much thought into it. This is too bad, because reflection is a key literary skill. Reflection in general is an important skill for learning anything. After all, studying is just a form of reflection.
“Our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” I think Prensky is exaggerating the necessity of technology in the classroom. I think a teacher's energy, charisma, and knowledge are all much more important than his or her technological skills. I've had many teachers who are great and engaging teachers not because of the technology that they used but because of their personalities and the care they put into teaching. I do believe that technology helps. In my own teaching, I feel that I have been able to engage the students and give my lessons much better flow by use of technologies such as: PowerPoints, document cameras, videos, etc.
I want to continue to incorporate technology in my teaching, and I hope that continuing my education on how to use different softwares and technologies to teach will increase m productivity as a teacher. I am not one hundred percent convinced that technology is making our children smarter, though. Prensky writes: “'Surely they have short attention spans – for the old ways of learning,' says a professor. Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, for for anything else that actually interests them.” Did students use to give just as much attention to their studies as they did their recreations and games before technology? I really doubt it. Of course, students, and all people, have an easier time concentrating on some thing they find entertaining, something that the don't have to work real hard at.
I believe there is a disbelief about the attention spans of students today. It seems that students are either given credit for having really good multi-tasking skills because they can watch television and check their Facebook while they try to do their homework, or they are diagnosed with ADHD. I believe that students today have the same attention spans as they have in generations past. Thy are just spreading their attention thinner. Prensky says this in reference to methodology of teaching. “It does mean going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access, among other things.” I disagree. I think it is still important to teach the decision making process, the scientific theory, problem solving steps, etc. Prensky adds, “Educators might ask 'But how do we teach logic in this fashion?' While it's not immediately clear, we do need to figure it out.” I think we try to hard to find the one-cure-all. I believe that teaching is a mosaic of different methodologies. I agree with Prensky that being current with technology is one of them. But I believe that teaching is so much more.
I am very excited to see what other technological tools I will learn how to implement for successful, engaging teaching!
You make a really strong point about Prensky exaggerating the use of technology in the classroom. Technology has become very important to education, but teachers still need to make their lessons exciting. Teachers need to engage students with their personality and passion for teaching as well.
ReplyDeleteTechnology was first used in the classroom as an aid, but is now becoming a necessary teaching tool to keep today’s students engaged in learning. It is kind of sad in my opinion, but if it is how teachers can reach their students then I believe it is not that bad. As long as the students are learning the subjects being taught, powerpoints, videos, and games are a great way to get students attention and get them to care about what is being taught. Their so called “short attention spans” will turn into attentive attention spans.
I do agree with you that step-by-step teaching is necessary. No matter how “short” the attention spans are of the students, they need to know these skills. We cannot speed up the process of things, because they will not be as accurate or complete.
You make some really good points. I enjoyed reading your post and I look forward to reading more!