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Today I had the privilege of listening to Hall Davidson, head of the Discovery Educator Network, speak on a topic entitled, “Revenge of the Digital Natives“.  He spoke of how the digital natives (children growing up with technology) have the ability to multi-task unlike any generation before them.  While the amount of time these students spend watching TV can increase their inability to attend, they can also multi-task with several different medias and expect to learn with several different medias. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Digital natives typically spend 2 seconds on a webpage before they decide whether or not the page will yield the information they are looking for.  What does this mean for teachers?  Think of the media you use in your class.  Mr. Davidson gave the example of how the old way to show an education video in schools was to play the whole 30 minute video.  Now with resources like United Streaming, teachers have the ability to download a short video segment that narrows in on their objective that they are teaching.  No more wasted classroom time! 

Mr. Davidson also shared some websites that can be used in a new way to engage students in the classroom:

• Google Lit Trips: Virtual field trips in Google Earth around famous works of literature
• Google Sketchup: Construct a 3D building
• Gcast: Call an online service, leave a message, and turn it into a podcast automatically
• Polleverywhere: Participate in a survey via your cell phone and results are displayed on the website live
• Jott: send yourself reminders via email by calling the Jott.com number

I have seen Mr. Davidson speak at the Day of Discovery in Silver Springs, MD back in August, and still find that he has new ideas to share with his audience.  I hope to continue to be as motivated and excited about technology as he is!

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MD, VA, DC Day of Discovery

http://amyboehman.blogspot.com

There is an interesting interview at ZDNet from Henry Jenkins, a media scholar at MIT, who is studying how digital environments influence children.  Here is one of the thought-provoking quotes:

“(Research has shown) that 57 percent of teens online have produced media and about a third of them have produced media that they shared with people beyond their immediate friends and families. A good chunk of those produced media by remixing it, so this is a generation that is not just consuming media, but producing media.” ~ Henry Jenkins

 This goes back to an earlier point that I made in a blog entry about the growing digital divide, not just between students, but between students AND teachers.  What percentage of teachers can boast that they have produced media and posted it to the Internet?  Created podcasts?  Blogs?  Incorporated any of these methods into the classroom? 

Students are using the Internet to find information and to publish information that they have created, whether it’s at MySpace, YouTube, or Facebook.  My sister, who was in 9th grade at the time, uploaded a video she created in school to YouTube.  Uploading to YouTube was not part of the class assignment, although her group decided to do it on their own time.

My point is this: students are creating and publishing to the web all the time.  How can educators take advantage of this in the classroom?  How can we teach students to ethically be responsible for the material they post to the Internet?  If kids are producing this kind of technology, how can we change the way we teach to motivate them further?

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U]

In an earlier post, I wrote about the impact of Karl Fisch’s video “Did You Know?” (a.k.a. Shift Happens 2.0).  You can also check out his blog while you’re at it.  He updates the video with current statistics such as “there are 2.7 billion searches on Google every month,” and the “amount of technical terminology is doubling every 2 years; and by 2010 it is expected to double every 72 hours.” 

Think:  What are the implications for teaching students in this fast-paced, digital world?  Do we have the resources, the money, the training, and the motivation to keep up?

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpjrHzgSRM]

I have a sister who is a freshman in high school.  I’m amazed by how different her educational experience has been in comparison to mine.  She grew up with a computer in the home since the day she was born, and she has watched and learned from all of her brothers and sisters on the computer.  My sister, along with her friends, created the Skittles commercial in a high school class for a project.  She remarked that the software she used in class was not as good as iMovie (from her Mac) or Movie Maker (from my PC).  Even so, they edited the whole process easily since my sister had video editing experience from summer projects we worked on together the year before (we made music videos – a quick an fun way to learn Movie Maker).  I was impressed with how quickly she learns and picks up on new concepts related to the computer.  When I created digital pictures that were edited in Photoshop Elements for my class book, I showed her the new pictures that had the “special effects” added into them.  While she was impressed, she smiled and said, “Send these to me.  I can make them better”.  And she did!  How does she do this?  She isn’t afraid of the computer like older generations can be.  She sits at the computer and plays around with software until she teaches herself what she wants to know.  If students are doing this on their own, should we reconsider how we are teaching them in the classroom?  How can we continue to keep the technology updated so that students like my sister won’t be slowed down by what is available in their classes, but can soar with it?  All points that need to be considered.  Where is the Digital Divide really?  Is it between the “haves” and the “have nots”? I see a bigger Digital Divide between the digital learners in today’s classrooms and their teachers.  I heard a quote once that went something like this: “Technology won’t replace teachers.  But teachers who use technology will replace teachers who don’t.” 

I think this is absolutely true.