Sunday, July 30, 2017

Teaching Digital Natives

I do not consider myself a digital native, in the sense that I did not grow up with the technology readily available to students today. My family got our first computer when I was 16, I vividly remember printing my senior paper on my dad's dot matrix printer. Anyone else remember that sound?? The horror! I did not get my first cell phone, the iconic Nokia, until I was a junior in college. I do consider myself a very well adjusted digital immigrant though. I have embraced all that technology provides, the interaction, the connectedness, the immediacy of information available to me. I remember thinking caller ID was the best invention, third only to fire and the wheel, but now I cannot imagine living without being able to Google any thought on my computer or smart phone.

While I do not feel I am a digital native, I LOVE the fact that my students are. My school has a written policy against bringing electronic devices to school. One that I have blatantly turned my back to in my own classroom. I feel that if devices are such an integral part of my students lives, to separate them from education just perpetuates the idea that formal education is disconnected from their real world. I also believe that if we embrace the possibilities of marrying education and personal technology that we have an opportunity to influence our students on how to appropriately use their technology. We have all experienced that moment in a restaurant or other public setting where a couple or family spends the entire time glued to their individual devices, it is painful and sad to watch. We, as educators, have an opportunity to not only teach content and digital citizenship, but also the ability to discern when it is appropriate for "screen time" and when it is not.

Personal electronic devices... bring them into my classroom! They are a powerful learning and interacting tool, but know when to put them away and engage with me and your classmates in the "old fashioned" art of conversation.

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