I believe that the distance learning experience needs to accommodate the
digital immigrant to a certain degree. Digital natives have grown up with technology while digital immigrants began their education with paper and pencil and have migrated toward note taking on personal devices. Age can be a handicap for the digital immigrant rather than a mark of experience. Marc Prensky's Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants writes that "Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." Not only have today's students grown up with using technology all day long, but these students also "think and process information fundamentally different" then what digital immigrants do.
I agree with Prensky when he asks “which is harder – “learning new stuff” or “learning new ways to do old stuff?” (Prensky, 2001). The older we become the more accustomed we are to a specific practice or tool whether it be our favorite phone or the tools we use to teach with. This affects us so much that we, as digital immigrants, have a fixed mindset although we believe that we don’t because we are attempting to try new technology. Digital immigrants need a growth mindset to move above and beyond in teaching and learning. (Listen to Carol Dweck talk about mindset in this TEDTalk.)
In designing an online learning module for teachers, it is imperative to keep in mind that the teacher may be either a digital native or a digital immigrant. Therefore, a learning activity or practice needs to accommodate all types of digital learners and promote cohesiveness between the 'natives' and immigrants' with practices, such as:
I agree with Prensky when he asks “which is harder – “learning new stuff” or “learning new ways to do old stuff?” (Prensky, 2001). The older we become the more accustomed we are to a specific practice or tool whether it be our favorite phone or the tools we use to teach with. This affects us so much that we, as digital immigrants, have a fixed mindset although we believe that we don’t because we are attempting to try new technology. Digital immigrants need a growth mindset to move above and beyond in teaching and learning. (Listen to Carol Dweck talk about mindset in this TEDTalk.)
In designing an online learning module for teachers, it is imperative to keep in mind that the teacher may be either a digital native or a digital immigrant. Therefore, a learning activity or practice needs to accommodate all types of digital learners and promote cohesiveness between the 'natives' and immigrants' with practices, such as:
- clear and detailed instructions on how to use an online learning module
- specific procedures for discussion boards & posts
- options for teachers on presentations for their assignments and projects
- constant availability for questions and technology support.
Distance learning must be designed to facilitate digital wisdom but the key factor is not to use technology just because it’s online but rather the digital tools used must assist in the learning and pedagogy.
Recently, teachers in at my building have been asking me how to take what they already teach and just add a 'tiny bit of technology' to acclimatize to the way their students learn. But this is the wrong approach! Some of what we currently teach is adaptable for the digital natives, however, teachers need to learn to think creatively and really listen to their students. I agree with Marc Prensky, in From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom, when he is dismayed at “how little educators really listen to the kids they teach” (Prensky, 2011). I can tell which teachers in my school building actually listen to their students. These are the teachers that get creative with their curriculum - by reading about, learning and experimenting with different digital tools. These are the teachers that get out of their comfort zone and move beyond using the tried and true just because it seems to work.
An 8th grade social studies teacher, that I know, realized that her students didn't want to just create another presentation of someone famous. Instead, her students wanted to know what it was like to be that person by virtually traveling to that time and place in history or creating a game about that person’s life or videotaping themselves as that person living today. That’s using digital wisdom – taking what needs to be taught, listening to what and how students learn and then letting students use digital tools to create the experimenting and learning.
Distance learning can candidly incorporate empathy and passion. Everyone wants to be heard or listened to, as
well as, be provided with constructive feedback on their thoughts or work. Without that, the online learning environment
suffers and it feels that there is little learning gained. In a recent Edutopia article Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement, several 8th grade
students were interviewed and one 8th grader’s comment is
particularly striking… “It isn't necessarily the subject or grades that really
engage students but the teacher. When teachers are truly willing to teach
students, not only because it is their job, but because they want to educate
them, students benefit. It’s about
passion. That extra effort to show how
it will apply to our own future.”
Students everywhere – in class or online – want teachers to love what
they do and have a passion for the students and
what they teach.
In designing an online learning module for new technology teachers, we need to use digital wisdom. Perhaps even more so as we are modeling what teachers must use when they teach and create an online learning module. We need to listen to what the new teachers need and acclimate the digital immigrants and digital natives to learn together in a distance learning program modeling for the new teachers empathy, passion and how constructive feedback works in an online learning environment.
In designing an online learning module for new technology teachers, we need to use digital wisdom. Perhaps even more so as we are modeling what teachers must use when they teach and create an online learning module. We need to listen to what the new teachers need and acclimate the digital immigrants and digital natives to learn together in a distance learning program modeling for the new teachers empathy, passion and how constructive feedback works in an online learning environment.
CEMP Videos. "Marc Prensky - What Is the Role of the Teacher in Todays World?" YouTube. YouTube, 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
Dweck, C. S. (2006).
Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
Happy & Well. "Marc Prensky 'Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom' at Young Minds 2013." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
Happy & Well. "Marc Prensky 'Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom' at Young Minds 2013." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
Prensky, Marc.
"Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." MCB University Press, 2001.
Prensky, Marc. “From
Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom”. Hopeful Essays for the 21st
Century, Corwin Press, 2012.
Wolpert-Gawron, Heather. "Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement." Edutopia. N.p., 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Wolpert-Gawron, Heather. "Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement." Edutopia. N.p., 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
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