To be or not to be a Digital Native

   The term Digital Native has begun to be thrown around a lot recently, from as small as in blogs to as large as national media attention.  All of these sources have varying ideas and beliefs about digital natives and how to teach them however I think we are all missing the most important question:

 WHAT ARE THEY?!

  The best definition I can find is that a digital native is someone who has literally been immersed in technology since the day they are born.  Even this definition is fuzzy.  For example, does this mean that digital natives can grow old? Or is the term specific to only young people?  Does immersed mean have access to and use on a daily basis or does it mean that it existed the same time as the "native"?  All of these questions and confusions surrounding the term "Digital Natives" has caused me to shy away from the term.
   The term was Digital Natives was first coined by Marc Prensky in the 1990's.  He described the term as almost exclusively the young who spend hours with technology on any given day.  He began to make huge jumps, saying that due to the massive amounts of technology, these digital natives' brains are actually beginning to be wired differently to those who did not grow up with technology, digital immigrants.  He then proceeded to say that while digital immigrants can become successful in using various forms of technology, their skill will never be able to match that of a digital native.
   After reading some  Presky articles and doing a little outside research of my own, I came to the conclusion that I don't believe in using the term "Digital Natives".  There are several dangers, if you will, surrounding what the term, digital natives, stands for.  For example, just the stereotype that revolves around the word, even for those who don't know what it means exactly, is dangerous.  In the classroom, if a teacher accepts this term, he/she may have a pre-notion that all the students coming in his/her classroom are proficient in technology (after all they are a digital Native).  This is absolutely crazy to me.  There is no way that a person can believe that every child they meet is going to be proficient in technology.  There are so many other factors that play into that; access to technology, the wealth and social status that surrounds technology, the interest in technology, etc. AND, if you want to take it a step further, what does "proficient in technology" mean? Many students may think that their ability to find the "next best game" or message their friends means that they are "proficient".  Proficient by the students' definition means nothing in the classroom.
   Today in class we held a debate about agreeing or disagreeing with the term Digital Natives (can you tell which side I was on).  However, I didn't start out to be so against the term.  I, at first, was sucked into what the term sounds like. well I have grown up with more technology than other generations, and for the most part I guess my generation knows more about technology, so I must be a native of the digital world. However, through reading critically of several articles and researching what others have thought about the term, my ideas quickly shifted.

   This comment made on yet another website arguing the term of digital native made the most sense to me.  The term Digital Native implies that only the young can be actual natives.  However, this guy, and myself, think that it is all in what one (any one, old, young, fat, purple) is used to.  The metaphor the guy is using in this comment is basically saying that teachers are automatized to the classroom environment, that's how they gained their "eyes" in the back of their head.  Students, for the most part, have become automized to technology, for some it's almost second nature.  A new teacher, who may not have those "eyes" will have to practice to automize his/her teaching and gain those "eyes".  If a teacher, or anyone for that matter, wants to connect with some of the students' automization to technology all he or she has to do is practice and become familiar.  Automization is practice not genetics.

The Day I Met Dr. Lodge

    When I think of integrating technology into my own classroom, my head begins to spin.  It seems that everyday there is a new tablet, phone, app, or tool coming out to better "integrate technology in the classroom".  My reservations about technological integration maybe due to some of my previous experiences with it.  As I was going through the education system, I had very few teachers who even dared to bring in any outside resources let alone technological resources.  My sophomore year in college I got my first taste technology in the classroom in the form of a 1:1 classroom.  I was taking an "Applied Childhood Development" class and every student got there own iPad for the semester. (And I was stoked!)  I am about as tech-savy as the average elementary student, I can work the internet, email, a few apps and a few word processing and organization tools.  I definitely am not able to use the various forms of technology up to their full potential.  Therefore, when I found out that I was now enrolled in a 1:1 classroom with iPads I was very excited to expand my technology skills.

HOWEVER, IT WAS A DISASTER. 

    Not to talk bad about the class, and I am taking into consideration the fact that WE (teachers included) are all learning the bumps that technology sometimes can have, but it was just not done right.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the iPads literally came with 10+ pages of apps with no instruction of how to use any of them.  While I know that exploration of how new technology works can provide good learning; 10+ pages of apps is a little overwhelming.  In terms of the usage of the technology in the classroom, it turned into every student surfing the internet/Pinterest as opposed to paying attention.  This scenario, I fear, is more common than not and the students are bored.  This experience has really tainted my view of 1:1 classrooms and technology in general in the classroom.

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    To me, technology is all about saving time, not taking more away from me.  Imagine if i actually looked at all those apps on that iPad; I would never have a life.  Additionally, technology is supposed to make things more fun, in turn, integrating technology in your classroom is supposed to make learning more fun.  At this point in my life, I thought that technological integration in the classroom hadn't been integrated properly yet.  There were just a lot of teachers with a lot a technology that they wanted to use, some more successful than others.  And then it all changed when I met Dr. Lodge.

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     I am a teaching fellow and by far my favorite forum that I have attended was on flipping the classroom with Dr. Lodge.  The main idea of flipping the classroom is to re-engage students through technology, which to me, is a perfect way to blend the abundance of technology that we have accumulated in our classrooms and educating our students.  Additionally, with all the time the teachers and students save by learning the basics of the unit at home, this allows more creativity and flexibility in the lesson plans for the teachers, which I hope in turn will encourage teachers to better integrate technology (possibly even re-visit the 1:1 model again).  It is as if this flipped model, in my eyes any way could help spark and inspire teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms.

YouTube - by Pocketlodge

    This model of "lecturing" as "homework" and actually learning/teaching in class (as opposed to managing) is probably my favorite model that I have seen so far.  I have done a few "mini flips" on my own but I am especially curious to see how effectively this model is integrated for myself.  If you follow Dr. Lodge's blog or site there are several teachers and even videos who rave about the success they have had with the flipped classroom model.  

SHOULD Technology and Education even meet?

   The question, should technology and education meet, is becoming a hot topic in the classroom and education arena.  There are many people who argue both sides of this question but, as our society progresses, there seems to be an overwhelming push to incorporate technology as much as we can in the classroom.

   I believe that technology should definitely have its place in todays classroom.  If not for anything else, it will at least give children some exposure to different types of media that they will definitely see in society.  In addition to just pure exposure, it gives teachers and educators another resource to use in their classrooms to bring some relevance to their lessons.  Technology, at least on paper, seems like the perfect blend of fun and "work".

   My experiences with technology has been rather slack.  I came from a school that was more than lacking in the technology department.  However, through working in and out of several different schools and doing a bit of research, I have witnessed the pros and cons of the incorporation of technology in classrooms.

Let's start with the Pros:

• The kids, especially at the elementary level, seem to really enjoy the technology (used correctly or not)
• Technology can provide another "angle" in which teach different topics and concepts to children
• Technology incorporation can help bridge achievement gaps between students by allowing students to go more at their own pace
• There are many grants that schools can apply for the be able to obtain several forms of new technology 
• Technology can help aid the teachers/administrators by providing more helpful ways of synching and organizing information
• Technology is constantly changing providing the chance for both the students to learn from the teacher as well as the teacher to learn from the students.

And the Cons:

• While technology can provide access to more tools for exploration in the classroom, technology also provides many ways for children to get distracted, i.e. the internet
• Technology also provides a new medium to teachers in which they have to find and prepare more relevant applications and tools for the students which can be hard and time consuming leaving teachers overwhelmed and frustrated
• The technology that may be needed to include ESL, Special needs programs, etc may not necessarily be covered under grants and can be very expensive
• Technology in general is very expensive, making schools really think about how to configure their budget
• Many teachers are going to need to take additional training to become fully equip with new technology which can be costly and time consuming
• Technology can fail

As we look at the pros and cons, the way I see it, of the incorporation of technology in classrooms I see a major theme; Money.

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  With Finland still topping the charts on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the US is feeling the pressure to "bounce back".  With the US not getting any better tests scores on the international level and NCLB failing, politicians are grasping at straws.  The latest straw they have gotten a hold of is technology.  There are numerous grants and federal programs offering to help schools pay for new technology.  While technology in the classroom obviously has many advantages to students and teachers, we aren't taking the time to implement it correctly.  Training for teachers, carful monitoring of students, professional workshops to give teachers the "best" applications to use in their classrooms, is what we should be focusing on to give technology a chance to work.  Technology dumping on schools is like giving a kid who doesn't know how to ride a bike, a new shiny bike.  While it may be awesome to look at, and maybe push it around, but that child isn't reaching the full potential fun-ness that he/she could be having because he/she doesn't know how to use it properly.

  I'm not trying to slam technology, I'm actually a big believer that educators should be incorporating technology into their classrooms.  However, I also believe that the US should not be using technology as it's crutch for bringing up tests scores on an international and national level.  If technology and educators can find the happy medium of technological incorporation without technological dumping I think it can be very successful in the classroom setting.  It will not fix all of the educational system's problems, but it can provide another tool to engage more students which, as future educators, is our real goal.