Are
students today fundamentally different than students in the past? No they
are not. All students need to be taught how to read and write in
early childhood. But as the students become older and smarter, the
concept of learning becomes more on how to react to life experiences and
problems.
As
I started to read what Prensky had to to say it surprised me, and it shouldn't
have, that all students K-12 have grown up using technology in there everyday
lives. He gave out numbers saying that "Today‟s average college
grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over
10,000 hours playing video games". This is extremely shocking to me,
This is one of the facts that helps to change my opinion, that students
are fundamentally different after all. Digital Natives, want everything done
in a timely and quick manner, where as Digital Immigrants must "print out
their emails to read". Prenskey continued to say that, video games
could and should play a role in today's classroom. I tend to agree with
this comment, students seem to put forth more effort when a game is being
played on the objectives that were just taught in the classroom. The
students seem to feel more comfortable learning while playing games.
DT
Quinn makes the point that Prensky finding are a little old and behind the
time. I can agree with this, students are extremely tech savy and much
has changed since 2001. Quinn states, " Using technological
tools or media changes the way we do things, but core human needs, activities
and behaviours persist. Education must change how it does its business, whilst
preserving, repurposing and remastering the best of what it has always
done." Data driven instruction is the big phrase in education at
this particular moment, and Quinn also brings it up in his blog, but not in the
exact words. Educational instruction changes over time but the expectations on
how the students interact does not. Students still need
to act in a respectful and mature attitude in the classroom, but us teachers do
change our teaching styles to better ensure the students will obtain
the information that we are trying to teach.
I was struck by the date of the article by Prensky and how much technology has changed since then. I was also astonished by the data about how many hours the average native spends on reading, TV and video games.
ReplyDeleteAs for your statement: "I tend to agree with this comment, students seem to put forth more effort when a game is being played on the objectives that were just taught in the classroom. The students seem to feel more comfortable learning while playing games." I find this in my classroom too. I also have many students who prefer the "old-school" approach. Do you find that too? I'm wondering if it's different with the younger students as compared to the older ones I teach.
yes, any time we play math bingo, math around the world, or any other game, you can see the students attention to detail will rise up.
DeleteAbsolutely! Even something as simple as stations around the room...any change of pace is welcome for them and for me, especially if it involves technology.
DeleteI was always shocked, too, Tiffany with students that preferred the "old-school" methods. At one point, I taught 8th graders and when I tried to introduce wikis and project work, they didn't really know what to do with intellectual freedom and were often misbehaved, but when I made them take notes from the overhead, they were angels. Have students really changed as much as we think they may have? Do students know how to use technology to learn or "just" to socialize?
DeleteI agree when you say that when students are older their learning becomes based around reacting to life experiences and problems. There are so many other factors than just technology that impact our students and their learning. These are all factors that teachers need to take into consideration when planning our lessons. I was also shocked when I read Prensky report that college grads spend less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading and over 10,000 hours playing video games. With that statistic being college grads, I wonder what the statistic of younger students would be when they are at the age of learning reading and writing skills in school. Do they spend the necessary time outside of school learning the fundamental skills that are needed to shape their future learning?
ReplyDeleteAt our school, we have a big problem where the parents don't spend the quality of time at home reading to their kids, let alone social interacting with them. We see the effects of it school.
DeleteI completely agree. It is extremely important for our students to build fundamental academic and social skills at a younger age so they can continue to progress as they get older. This cannot just be done in the classroom. These are skills that start at a very young age at home as well.
DeleteYour statement: "as the students become older and smarter, the concept of learning becomes more on how to react to life experiences and problems" is what I believe is one of the biggest struggles for educators today to teach. When I was taking college courses, all of my professors said to relate our teaching to the real world. This is great, however, when a student asks me why they need to learn rounding or addition with decimals I use a supermarket example. This example no longer works because of calculators on cell phones, the student replies "well my mom uses her phone and she gets along just fine.." It is very similar to a student asking why they need to learn any subject when they can just "google it." I try to talk to them about performing well on the test, but that is an under-effective method of the past. I really think schools should be pushing for testing to allow resources, and that we as educators should be teaching students how to find reliable resources. We all know everything posted on the internet is not true, but the students still turn there for the answers they're looking for.
ReplyDelete