More of the same?
Are we getting over it? Or is it part of the message that needs repeating in different ways, to engage different people. TO AWAKEN A WORLD TO IT’S OWN FUTURE!!!!
April 4, 2008
November 26, 2007
A digital divide in education
Derek’s blog posted ‘A digital divide in education’
But…people like order, people like hierarchy. It gives them a sense that someone is in charge. Someone has the plan. There is a plan. With that knowledge comes a sense that there are rules and boundaries. Without that sense of order there is uncertainty and in there lies the challenge.
Just as an aside, my principal and AP went off today on a course all about the new curriculum… I wanted to go… I want to be part of that initial conversation. Perhaps its only for APs and DP and Principals. So then, that just goes to show our education system has some way to go to flatten out. Derek mentions the educational Leader’s
Summit. Who are the educational leaders in this day and generation? Is that a Principals only thing? How do I get classed as an Educational Leader? How do you?
I agree that those ‘in charge’ need to get it more than they do. They can’t just get with it 2nd or 3rd hand. One of the problems though with technology is that much of it is down to time and motivation. Those of you reading this are with-it. By the very fact that you are online reading a blog post, following the links etc, etc. Perhaps there IS too much of a clique in our ‘online community’. Them out there, and us in here.
I really see the issue as being walking before we can run. Education as a whole in
New Zealand has yet to get ‘online’. Attendance at Ulearn and other conferences shows there are many individuals ready to make the leap into the ‘21st century learner realm’, but perhaps up-skilling teachers by way of wikis and blogs has some mileage. Let’s face it we’re so busy if we aren’t MADE TO use these tools then the majority of us will not. It is only through their use can we be up-skilled to meet the challenge of educating our students for the 21st century.
So what are the ideas and strategies involved to enable those ‘off-line’ to be encouraged to come over to our side of the conversation…. Or at least join the conversation…. At the VERY least know there is a conversation out there?
November 12, 2007
New Zealand Unleashed- well worth a read
New Zealand Unleashed by Steven Carden is a book that is continuing to make we think. I haven’t finished it yet but I just wanted to share with you the value in it, for everyone, and especially to us as educators in New Zealand.
Just as The World is Flat and Growing up Digital rocked the US so this book should be a ’sit up and listen’ kinda thing for New Zealand. Whether we will or not is another matter, but we should.
New Zealand is in a locality and has a population situation that makes innovation and change possible, with relative ease as societies go. Let’s make our educational system relevent for our students who are entering a global economy from a very unique direction.
Let’s stop apologising, play to our strengths and make a real difference.
July 11, 2007
Digital Natives? Digital Immigrants?
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky has to be one of the most commented on concepts in recent times. I have a few issues I wish to rise regarding this piece of writing, particularly in light of how it is being used throughout the world today. 
Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Marc begins with this statement, but is it true? Have our students really changed that significantly? What is Marc basing that statement on, there is no reference to research carried out or other reading he has gleaned that piece of information from.
Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.
What a sweeping generalisation, who are they, and by ‘they’ is it really all of them, most of them, those that ‘matter’, who matters anyway, how do you measure that? So many questions.
Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV).
Where have these figure come from? Is a simple question of multiplying up from hours in the day, who is this based on?
Says Dr. Bruce D. Berry of
Baylor
College of Medicine.
Who is Doctor Bruce? What is he a doctor of? What research is he basing his statement on? I quick Google search for the man in question simply refers to Marc’s other work. It was written six years ago, I guess we’ve all moved on since then.
On page 2 of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Marc talks about digital language and how us ‘immigrants’ have to learn ‘digital’ like a second language…. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain. Does it? What scientists? Is learning to work an ipod really the same as learning a second language? Perhaps Marc is taking his analogue a little too far?
Digital Immigrants don’t believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can’t.
Is this statement really true? I know the second part is (for me anyway) but that doesn’t mean the first part is. Where’s the study to back up this claim?
My own preference for teaching Digital Natives is to invent computer games to do the job, even for the most serious content.
It is good to here Marc talk about his own preferences and what an innovative way of going about teaching. Good on you Marc, My issue, rather is the way his statement has been taken by companies, educators and motivational speakers to turn the realm of education into one big game.
Does this mean that we can ignore Marc’s work? That is simply an interesting picture and can be dismissed out of hand? I would suggest the answer is still NO.
Firstly, if you sat there nodding while you read thinking, either “yep, that’s my son/ daughter” or “those are my clueless teachers he’s talking about.” then that has some merit, and it gains more weight if lots of folks around the globe are nodding away with you and me.
Secondly, since its publication the title of the book has:
24,000 hits on Google 251 blog posts about “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” on Technoratithe most recent on my writing this being 13 hours ago. That is 6 years after its publication.
Finally, when read in the contexts of books such as Growing Up digital by Don Tapscott or The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman it is given some weight, reflected, as it were from these publications.
Is it a scholarly work? Probably not. Is it a well written opinion piece? Perhaps. Does it serve as a wake up call for academia and governments to take a serious look at education? Most definitely.
May 23, 2007
Edcast 1:Understanding Digital Kids Part1
Understanding Digital Kids part 1
(if it will not play or plays double speed try right clicking and Save Target As- apologies for this a technical problem I can’t seem to fix at this time)
Recorded: on Thursday, 17 May at Napier War Memorial Conference Centre,
New Zealand.
Bio:Ian Jukes is the Director of the InfoSavvy Group, an international consulting group that provides leadership and program development in the areas of assessment and evaluation, strategic alignment, curriculum design and publication, professional development, planning, change management, hardware and software acquisition, information services, customized research, media services, and on-line training as well as conference keynotes and workshop presentations.
“they’re not thinking like we think they’re thinking”. Ian talks about the Brain project and how kids these days are REALLY not the same as we were. He talks about the fundamental shift that we have to make in the way we educate if we are motivate and inspire this generation to succeed.If after this presentation you feel moved to find out more simply email Ian and type the words “I need to be committed”. Please think about the following two questions. Feel free to leave a comment with your initial thoughts and ideas:·
Describe a day in the life of a student when 21st Century skills are real and rigorously in place for all students, what does learning look like and how is it different to how learning in a traditional classroom is today?
Describe how a teachers role would be different when 21st Century skills are real and rigorously in place for all kids, what does teaching look like and how is it different to how to traditional teaching today?
Links: Spectrum Education Funny photosThe Committed Sardine – http://www.ianjukes.com Ian Jukes – Presentations – http://www.thecommittedsardine.net Click handouts for this presentation
www.pbs.org – inside the teenage brain
George Lucas Educational Foundation
Producers of Edcast:
