Don Tapscott: "Net Generation"

In the first entry of this blog I have put forward my viewpoint regarding Mark Prensky's article about "Digital natives and Digital immigrants". I have read another author called Don Tapscott who also wrote and did research on the same topic presented, but with the minor difference that he uses another terminology: "The Net Generation" (Shortened to N-geners). I reckoned that it would be quite interesting to reflect upon some ideas that I've gathered from one of his most well-known articles called: "The rise of the Net generation".

I took an excerpt from the article that I considered worthwhile: “The Net generation are children at the heart of the new digital media culture, and whose learning styles and strategies have changed profoundly and dramatically from that of their parents”. I believe it is highly important for us to see that learning strategies and styles are no longer similar to that of former times; hence, we need to move away from the traditional teaching model to a more eclectic and inclusive one. Our learners are more demanding because the world we live in is fast-moving and insists on trends that are hard to crack.

 Furthermore, we should not fight back or resist the network fashion but we should adopt it and apply it to improve our lessons and to appeal students. That is why I think it is advantageous to obserb and be mindful about our children’s strategies to develop lessons that are more fruitful, content-rich, and that contemplate the new learning styles.

Another characteristic the author mentions, is that this new generations are exceptionally curious, self-reliant, smart, focused, able to adapt, high in self-esteem, and has a global orientation. Let alone the fact that the way they get hold of input data is utterly different, and their ability to multi-task has shaken everything known so far.

 This last fragment holds truth only partly, since it generalizes and one cannot take for granted that all kids will have these traits with no exception whatsoever. In the educational field, we encounter individuals of all kinds, some of them may embody the characteristics mentioned above, but some others won’t. This is the moment in which our role becomes important to help learners develop their learning skills, stimulate their intelligences and adjust our lessons to make the most out of their potential.

The “culture of interaction” is another topic tackled within this article, and I do agree with the author in that this generation has the strong necessity of exposing themselves, their passions and interests; it is the Internet the path that makes this urgency viable with only just "one click". This culture, if harnessed, can be a tremendous force in promoting learning.

"When these peoples surf the net, they typically participate in several activities at the same time.” This fragment reffers back to multi-tasking and I must say I have an ambiguous posture towards this topic. It is widely affirmed that this ability is aqcuired by new generations because of the way they access and digest information masively and overwhelmingly. However, it is also fair to say that this ability is somehow connected to maturational factors. Young learners have a more flexible schemata and they subsume information in a larger scale and with hardly any effort than older people, who do not have much "room" left in their shemas and their speed for processing data is fairly weaker. Two plausible theories for one topic, I guess it depends on how we want to see it.

“Another reality is that kids are not fond of pre-digested information, they want (and need) to learn by doing, where they check their own understanding trying things out! and this is how learning becomes experiential, and hence, meaningful and long-lasting.” When I read this passage form the article Brunner came to my mind immediately. We studied Brunner's ideas and theories in Psycholinguistics (a subject of our English teaching programme) and he coined the term "Scaffolding", by which adults or teachers (in our case) should guide the learner or child to discover things by himself. It is precisely this discovery that will have a meaningful outcome for the child and that experience is automatically engraved in his mind, resulting in a long-lasting learning. Having said that, we should consider devicing classroom activities based on problem-solving or simply tasks that pose a challenge to them and that they can resolve by trial and error.

These are some ideas that kept bouncing in my mind...

Hope you find them worthwhile.

Here's the link to the complete article if you feel like reading it! 

Embracing it!

While I was searching the web I bumped into this video and couldn't help but share it with you all.

What drag my attention instantly was that despite being a rather simple presentation, it definitely leaves a message concerning the use of technology inside the classroom. The reality is that the way in which human beings connect each other and exchange information is global, fast, and above all, enjoyable. So, when it comes to teaching and learning one should, at least, wonder if the lessons we prepare are not falling short of ideas or components.

This video also made me recall an instance when I was doing my observations last year, in which the teacher told students to work with an article that contained vocabulary they did not yet know and they were supposed to use the dictionaries from the library. Instead, they used their cell phones as dictionaries; this came as a shock to me since I was quite reluctanct to believe that they could be used as an actual tool to fulfill the activity proposed. My experience at secondary school was a bit different, I remeber being told off if I used my phone in class. Amazingly, I was proved wrong when I saw learners working energetically and enthusiastically looking up the words on the on-line dictionary. That got me into thinking it would have taken ages for them to look for each word in a book-like dictionary, and to tell the truth, the overall task would have been quite boring and time-cosuming as well. The teacher also gave them permission to do the activities proposed while listening to music in a low volume, so as not to disrupt the classroom environment. I considered this behavior to be disrespectful towards the teacher and not appropriate for an institutional context. We are institutionalized human beings because we need to learn certain rules and norms that enable us to live in a dignified and harmonic way; there are places in which we cannot and shouldn't do what we please.

This video illustrates the need for us teachers to articulate our practices by using technological devices together with the fact that we cannot expect to entertain learners and have their undivided attention with a piece of chalk and a blackboard on a daily basis. 

Hope this will get our brains in gear or at least plant the seed of curiosity ;)

Digital Natives Vs Digital Immigrants

To begin with, I would like to briefly describe two terms that have become widely spread: the so-called "Digital natives" and "Digital immigrants".

A Digital native is a person who was born during the introduction of digital technologies and interacts with them from an early age; as a result, they have a greater understanding of its concepts. Computers, e-mails, the Internet, cell-phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. Consequently, the way they manipulate and process information has changed drastically to that of their predecessors.

At the other extreme, we find Digital immigrants who were born before the existence of digital technologies and adopted it to some extent later in life.

I reckon that this dichotomy poses a challenge to teachers who are trying to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the matter to make the most out of these new technologies for teaching purposes. The intended direction towards we are heading is an integrative approach, in which we incorporate these new developments as potencial tools that will foster and enrich learners' educational experiencies. Adopting an apprehensive position is not a viable choice; we cannot rely on traditional teaching as the only way out either. We are seeking to nurture our professional field and to provide high quality education, but above all, we are trying to reach our students, to engage them, and to help them grow up healthily without rejecting their worlds.

 I found Marc Prensky's article about Digital natives and Digital immigrants to be enthralling and quite straightforward on the matter and I would like to have a say and share my humble opinion:

It goes without saying that this concept of "digital natives" cannot , by any means, be overlooked. Personally, I believe it is essential for us, as future professionals, to become aware of the fact that the introduction of digital technologies has provoked drastic changes in the way our students process and deal with information. We shouldn't think of this situation as an impediment for our teaching practices, on the contrary, we should embrace it and make the most out of it, since it can simplify and make the teaching-learning process an incredibly exciting experience for both, teachers and students. Nevertheless, we should be conscientious with regards to its use.

I have selected a fragment from the article that I very much agree with:

"(...) today's teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students. This doesn't mean changing the meaning of what is important, but it does mean going faster, less step-by-step (...)" I found this part of the article to be connected to what I mentioned above. This idea of trying to be updated to meet the increasing demands of our hectic world, together with the acknowledgement that things HAVE changed and the need to keep pace with these new developments.

And another one which I consider erroneous:

"(...) Digital immigrants don't believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the immigrants) can't (...)" I do not agree with this passage. I think people need to be less narrow-minded about certain issues; our students skills shouldn't be underestimated, and we should be aware that we are constantly bombarded with information; hence, the way of coping with things will be different. A clear example would be the ability to "multi-task", doing one or more things at the same time. The way in which students approach general data is significantly different from previous generations and the brain structure has changed as well, allowing learners to focus on more than one thing at a time.




If by any chance you want to have a look-see to the whole article here is the link to it:

http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.htm

 These images you see below epitomize the two concepts described in the article above: "Digital natives" and "Digital immigrants".

A pitiful depiction of a Digital Immigrant loosing his head over technology and the Digital native looking at him thinking: "poor  guy... he's utterly technologically impaired"

A clear example of how traditional teaching seems backward-looking compared to nowaday's reality. Reading, as a fine art, is also in decay.