Change: It's a Learning Thing

Chapter 7, in the Introduction offers this bit of insight..."Not all young people are digitally competent, nor are they all interested in every aspect of the new media (Livingstone, 2009)(Erstad, pg 99). The point I would like to focus on in this quote is the "Nor are they all interested in every aspect of the new media," because this thought in and of itself is probably the greatest qualifying statement to the majority of the students that pass through my classroom. Many of them have and use their phones for various media interactions, but few are actually interested or capable of using their devices to the potential they could be used. Texting and checking social media are some of the communication tools many of the students use regularly, but few use their devices to organize their everyday lives or track goals because they have no interest in using them for that, fact is they can be seen writing those types of things down in a pencil / paper planner... why? Many of them only use manual entry forms of texting vs the speech to text options available that becoming increasingly more accurate... why? Many students still only check their email on the computer rather having the account linked directly to their devices...why? I also found this chapter to further discuss the ideology of socio-cultural studies identifying generations with the various different monikers that have emerged as late like...Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials, as well as others, which led me to think about my generation's label... turns out I'm a bit of a "tweener" in that technically my birth year is the last year for the so called "baby boomers" or in the beginnings of the Gen X, but how could this be because I grew understanding that the Gen Xers were that catalyst for the origination of the X Games (1995), yet the so called Gen X ended in 1981... what?? and Gen Y started and loosely included the Millennials, but that ended in 1995, prior to Y2K... really? how could the millennials end before the millennium ends / begins... what?  You see this entire circle of thought leads you the reader away from the original ideas and clouds or confuses those ideas... The importance here for me is recognizing that labels are just labels and the have very little to offer in describing those individuals under those labels, think of them more as a way to categorize our understanding or as I like to say..."place in our own little boxes" Hence the need to think outside the box...just saying. The Table, 7.1, on page 107 is a great representation of this thought.

Chapter 8 shifts the focus from labels to how those labeled make use of their searching for credible information. This immediately set my thoughts on all those conversations I had in the past with other educators that refused to accept anything that wasn't a .edu or .org as a credible source. Which I think was really code for they didn't want any internet sources at all, but rather demanded students to labor intensively in the library pouring over article after article only Not to find what you could have found with a well questioned query in less than a minute. This, I think, is still the case with many teachers today, and while I agree that students need to learn how to discern good credible sources... they will Not learn that skill by osmosis, you have to teach them! The quote I chose to support my opinion comes from the chapter's conclusion... "...undergraduate students have always been admonished to develop more sophisticated research skills..."(Kennedy, Judd, pg. 132) How? How are they to learn these skills... I hearken back to the words of Neil Postman, saying students need to be schooled in the "Art of Crap Detection." The "information age" is upon us and students have access to information unlike any previous time in the history of the world, so the main focus of education should acknowledge this phenomena and start teaching students how to better locate information and discern the quality of the information located!


Chapter 9 starts with yet more studies on what young people are doing when they access the Internet. tables 9.1 and 9.2 offer a quick reference to the data collected and for whatever reason I was quickly struck with measure of the questions in Table 9.2, as 0 or 1, yet the range for possible interaction varied widely. Blogging for instance... yes or no, is not the issue, but rather the frequency... monthly, weekly, daily... all receive the same score. Someone that blogs daily scores the same as someone that blogs monthly should be in the same data column, nor the individual that has a weekly podcast. What is the difference between the individual that posts regular status updates with pics on like, say Instagram, vs someone that updates their status once a month receiving the same score. I understand the explanation that followed, but it really just struck me as odd, which often leads to questioning validity and reliability... dare I say "crap detection" (keeping in mind that I'm Not, repeat NOT, bashing their findings, just questioning this one point). The subsequent charts, graphs, and tables are filled good information and a visual way to process the findings... the good stuff, for me starts, in the sub-heading, "Limitations" which circles right back to the validity and reliability definitions. This all led to my choice for the quote, buried in the conclusion, "Using the Internet does not automatically guarantee participation in the information society, hence assistance is required in order to engage them in relevant activities."  To turn the popular phrase..."build and they will come"... "teach them how to learn, then inspire them to learn how to think."

Digital Natives: Their New Culture

Chapter 4 yielded this nugget for me... "new digital Internet tools do enable new forms of creativity, communication, and participation, but not necessarily for all young people," (Banaji, pg 60)... in the ongoing effort by many activist groups and civic organizations to engage the youth of their country technology has become the "go to" method of reaching out. What many organizations do not take into consideration is that many of the so-called "digital natives" or "millennials" want authentic ways for engagement not just a web-based app.  It's true that these are the types of tools they will engage with, but not because it's trendy, but because it connects them in real time. Twitter wars are talked about the next day, but in real time they are relevant, authentic, and full of purpose... in that yesterday's news is well old... the daily news paper is old... and small town weekly's well they are real old. A connected generation wants to participate in the now not read about it days after, so if the goal is to connect today's youth to real issues then it is all about connecting them in real time with real issues. 

Chapter 5... They constantly use mobile phones for immediate communication with their peer group and family and connect with each other beyond time-space via Internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (Thomas, 2011, pg. 67).  Constant contact... I remember a time when I left the house for work at 5am and returned home sometimes as late as 9pm without so much as peep as to my whereabouts and further I had no inclining as to peeping my daily activities... I was working in the DC Metro area 10 and 12-hour days with a total commute time of nearly 4 hours, but times have changed and the ability to "check-in" has led to the need to do so. Like, I said above today's youth want to be involved in "real-time" and that means constantly checking to see if there is something worth following or getting involved in so they can stay current. Furthermore, I can remember current events meant clipping a newspaper article or writing down what was on the evening news, but today current events mean current... minutes or hours old... "We interrupt the current programming to bring you this breaking news..."   to   "can you believe this just posted????"  While I understand the need for balance, I also understand the need to be connected to your social circle... Nobody likes being the one that doesn't know what's going on in the world, Nobody! 
 
Chapter 6 led to what I have been saying all along...  "From our analysis, it is also evident that regardless of their technical fluency, students still require traditional skills for successful task completion." (2011, p. 95)... the concept I have been espousing along, while digital natives may have more access at an earlier age this in No way implies that are born with innate skills. I still have high school seniors that have never sent an email or created an email account until they do so in my class and I have to provide very detailed instruction or even provide them with a "pair share" learner to guide them through the process. Teaching students how to better use the tools they have is essential to growth and achievement.

This MEME is i suppose to have the "World's Most Interesting Man" holding an iPhone 6s as a way to show that even digital immigrants use technology too! Most of my students are shocked to know that I have a "Snapchat" and "Periscope" account, but Not Facebook (which keeps me from declining their persistent friend requests). I, Twitter, Snapchat, Insta-gram,  and even guide them through what some would believe is easy formatting set-ups for different types of documents, I even have them set their MS Word Docs to show the "readability" statistics so they can see the grade level of their writing, which they think is really cool, especially when they start achieving grade level statistics above 10th grade. I may not be a "digital native" or the "Most Interesting Man." but I'm learning to use technology just like the best of them.

Thomas, M. (2011). Deconstructing digital natives: Young people, technology, and the new literacies. New York: Routledge. 

Pecha Kucha: Learning It's A Thinking Thing

This is my Pecha Kucha for Curriculum In The New Media Age

Digital Immigrants vs. Natives: Dispelling the Myths

The forward and first three chapters... WOW! Yet, I'm left feeling like someone  had been stealing my thoughts... how could that be possible I had not yet read this book and still so many words that seemed like thoughts and conversations I have already had. Maybe Honest Abe was right, "Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't that new at all." the first quote from the forward goes like this..."The problem here is not with the natives themselves, but rather with the rest of us, the "Digital Immigrants"who remain obstinately tied to older media, and who are failing to catch up with  the times."(Buckingham, pg xi) Though I don't feel like I am holding on to the old media I sure know a lot of people my age that are, and I should clarify by my age I mean people who still remember phones attached to the wall and black and white TV, and that's all I have to say about that.
My quote form Chapter 1 comes by way of the closing paragraph..."In addressing the digital literacy skills and the evolution of new forms of pedagogy, educators have to be wary of adopting conveniently dichotomized modes of thinking" (Thomas, pg 9) This quote contains an entire post in itself, but I'll offer this tidbit, which goes back to a theme I have been voicing for some time in that... sound educational practices and pedagogy is not changed on a whim and tools and strategies are just that tools and strategies, Not pedagogical practices. Understanding that trends or fads are, well, trends and fads, technology is a tool and like all tools it requires learning how to use it. Reading is a learned skill, teaching students how to read is the pedagogical practice of teaching students how to use various tools and strategies in order to become a reader. The key here is learn "how to" the same is true of technology and the "Digital Natives," they must learn how to use the tools just like the "Digital Immigrants."
In Chapter 2 the author wants to offer the intent of coining the phrase that was taken so literal that the intent was lost and even morphed into a beast that has grown to epic proportions. When reflecting on this reading, I thought about the monk that coined the terms BC and AD, which how now become the universal BCE and CE (for political correctness). While he wasn't searching for a metaphor to name a phenomenon, he was searching for a way to discern the old and the new as a break in time. Such is the case here, but with a different reaction... in that with the BC and AD no presumptive power was automatically given to the new ADers, they were still the same people they now living in a new era. So it goes, with the "Digital Natives," they are Not born with the innate skills required to use technology, but their exposure to new technology lends itself to learning it at a much earlier age... even the "Speak n Say" is more sophisticated today than 25 years ago when I bought my son his, which is far beyond mine... my mother reading a "Golden Rule" book that went like this... "The cow says, moooooo" and she made the sounds. The quote, "I'm shocked at how many supposedly well-educated, thinking people just "can't take a metaphor."" (Prensky, pg 15)
Chapter 3 caught me in the "Collaborative Learning" subtitled section in that I just read a article about what students think about collaborative learning... Student Led Discussions and Learning
Which is one side of the narrative, but also points back to the theme I explored in Chapter 1, just because it's trendy does mean that the classroom facilitator can sit back and push the proverbial "GO" button and students will engage in deep and meaningful conversations that lead to a greater DOK. No what it means it that facilitator must plan more carefully, outline learning goals, objectives more comprehensively, and then interact with the learning groups providing the support each group needs, which means some groups will need different strategies and tools, but all groups need the primary information and tools. The quote, "The traditional method of teaching suggested in this contrast with collaboration was the direct transfer of knowledge from the tutor or lecturer by a largely one-way transmission,"(Jones, pg 35) which when coupled with my constructivist approach leads me to... students learning how to think about what they are learning by questioning and collaborating with others learners.

Student led presentations with various tech tools available to support their presentation, note the pens and "Post-it" notes as well as the poster sheets taped to the table with student created visuals... a treu MultiModal Presentation??? Imagine that..

 Thomas, M. (2011). Deconstructing digital natives: Young people, technology, and the new literacies. New York: Routledge. 

Txt and MXmodal

I have watched and shared this assignment Ted Talk many times to others. Many of the different things I have learned from talks this are more like conformation for my own thoughts or conversations about educational philosophy I have had with others. John McWhorter goes into great deal explaining the developments of texting as a spoken language that happens to appear in the form of written symbols, but it is Not writing. This all ties very well with the readings this week as well in that reading is reading and writing today has some of the same problems that have existed since writing was created. To me the only people that are really have a problem with the changes are the people that hold themselves in the power elite... as a way of denying access to the common person. As if to say that you aren't really reading if what you are reading isn't recognized as a classic novel or other approved academic resource. This would apply to writing (or texting) if you do Not use the adopted formal constructs then you are ruining the written language. Fact is MLA didn't even exist until the 1980's and APA formatting in the 1970's, so who's rules were you to follow before that? I think it easy for those that do Not fully understand something to condemn it and or blame for ruining something. There are still people that rip wikipedia as an un-trusted source, yet its proven to be as reliable as Britannica. I guess, what I'm really trying to say is ... change is always occurring... morphing, growing, evolving... sometimes good and sometimes Not, but it should be understood for what it truly is before it is judged... which leads me to my true problem... most of the people that should know better are the very ones judging the harshest... shame on you!

The Written Word

An opening quote to help ponder the question... Is digital technology ruining the art of writing?... Now the quote...“There never was a golden age where everybody could write well,” says Lunsford. “Writing is hard.”(Karp, 2010).  Writing is the hardest thing students have to learn how to do, in my opinion, because so much happens between the time the thought leaves the brain and tries to come out the pencil or keyboard. When you are speaking, even when choosing your words carefully, you don't worry if they are spelled correctly... you just say them and if you say it wrong you just correct yourself or clarify. Yet when you are writing the grammar rules and spelling rules are a constant clamor, all while you are trying to think of clever things to say, since you will Not have the chance for instant clarification. Having the conversation in your head and trying to think about all the possible word choices, their usage, and proper spelling and then forcing them down to the end of a pencil can be an exhausting task for many students. So, formal writing takes practice on that we all agree... almost all of us agree that finding better and quicker ways to accomplish the task of practicing is good for students too. For those of you that disagree with me about that consider this thought... are you reading this post on an electronic device? If you reply will you do so using a keyboard? If you answered yes (and you most likely did) then you are using an updated method that is supposedly ruining writing...Hell let's go back to quill and ink to write on parchment if we feel like we must maintain writing in its purity... untainted form the likes of advancements... and yes that means throwing Shakespeare's work out too because he invented words, used nouns as verbs and vice versa. Ridiculous Right????  It like demanding handwriting be taught, but not keyboarding... I learned handwriting when I was in elementary, but sure wish I had better typing skills now. Education has changed! The way we communicate has changed! The arrogance of some educators thinking that teaching from a purist point of view ill prepares students for the world they will live in beyond school. We do Not need to fix the current education system... we need to build a new system that adequately prepares students for the world they will live in, Not the world of the 20th Century, but the 21st Century and beyond!

The second article yielded this quote..."Books aren't out the picture, but they're only one way of experiencing information in the world today"... This says it all to me... in a world that many want to see as only this way or that, (black or white), or I'm right and you're wrong... books have their place, but so does every other form of media. I could expound upon this idea and thought for hours and even add the ideas of Zachary Sims as he relates his understanding of this topic, but I would rather ask this question and know the answer before I proceed. Because the answer to the question will have a great deal of bearing on the direction I would take the conversation... Answers to this question will provide the fodder for an up-dated post.

What do think is a person's most valuable resource?

References:

Karp, J. (2010, January 01). Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writiers. Retrieved May/June, 2016, from http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/does-digital-media-make-us-bad-writers

Rich, Motoko. "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading." June-July 2008. Web. May-June 2016.