“A Digital Immigrant’s Assimilation Story”

Just a few months ago I was a “Digital Immigrant” with a thick accent and a foot deeply planted in the old ways of education (Prensky, 2001). My first course in technology has helped me loose some of my accent and help assimilate to our new digital society. As a teacher, I must make students develop new technology skills in order to prepare them for the present change in the world workforce. If schools don’t prepare our students for the future they will face a “flat world” where others are already competing with these skills and knowledge (Friedman, 2005). I was awakened to a new set of skills through the Partnership for 21st Century Skills that calls on us to drastically to change our education system with a vision for implementing these technology skills (Partnership, n.d.). This course has had me apply many of the skills that I need my students to have. Without prior experience, I created a blog, collaborated on a wiki, and produced a podcast! As an “immigrant” my learning curve was long, but I also gained great empathy for my students that struggle with my native tongue.

I had thought that I already used technology in the classroom, but knew that I needed to be better prepared, so I chose technology as a focus for my professional development. I learned through this class that their is a difference between using technology in the classroom to do things differently, and doing different things (Laureate, 2008). I already had students using the smart board (when I could sign it out). I have moved from the overhead to the LCD projector and have students create power points. These are good uses of technology, but do not have students become expert decision makers and sophisticated collaborators. I know that students learn differently and are engaged by new technologies. I have also learned that I will do them a disservice If I do not help them with the skills used in the Web 2.0 world (Richardson,2009).

I have introduced a new learning experience using pod casts to create a documentary about a field study to the local Historical Society. Students are excited and engaged in the planning and producing a podcast of their work. I have also been contacted by an enlivened Historical Society, parents and colleagues, who are asking questions and showing great enthusiasm for this activity. It has become more than just an assignment.

I also had a great student centered experience with a research project on the leadership qualities for the President of the United States. Students collaborate and evaluate different President’s leadership qualities that they prescribe. They then produce a movie from Photo Story that the whole class evaluates. This has lead to a lot of teacher hands off, constructivist type learning which my students really excelled at. I was learning that many of my students want this type of learning format.

I have two goals to reach with this new heightened level knowledge of technology. First, to introduce a blog for my current events assignment. I have met with some road blocks from my school district because they have a very conservative Internet blocking policy with regard to blogging. I project to be up and running with my student blog by the end of November. I also want to convert a Civil War project in May to a Wiki format. It appears to be easily transferable. I see my Wiki experience with this course very rewarding. The fear of something new lead to a confidence that I can contribute and participate! I want my students to experience something similar, not to mention prepare them for future virtual collaboration. I am thrilled to find that the Media Specialist in my school is also interested in developing Wiki experiences with students. We are on the way to developing a learning experience for May.

In conclusion, I find that the gap between my old world and the new digital world is closing. I am better prepared to help my students succeed in their future lives which has always been a goal of mine as a teacher. Just as importantly, I have gained an awareness of the dramatic change that is occurring in our lives and not in our schools. I see my role as an teacher partially undefined because of the factors of a changing world and a stagnant educational system. Regardless of the impediments to infrastructural changes, I myself can be an agent to change that Richardson says is of the “highest importance” (Richardson, 2008). My job is to balance the needs of the my students with the limitations that they may face.

References

Friedman, T. (2005, April 3). It's a flat world, after all. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). The emergence of educational technology. [Motion Picture]. In Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

How to teach "Millennial Learners"- A survey

This week I surveyed my eighth Social Studies classes about their use of technology at home and in school. I summarized the findings and added student responses on a podcast. http://jimshay1.podbean.com/

We all know that the new technologies have changed our way of life. How will we as educators adapt to this quickly enough stay relevant to our students educational needs? What do you think needs to happen?

Are we ready for the 21st Century?

For anyone interested in a roadmap to educating students in the 21st century, stop what you are doing and go to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. Watch a short Video form the National Summit on 21st Century Skills. Partnership Video 

It is obvious that our educational system is becoming less and less relevant in regards to preparing students for the new communication age. In many ways our schools are years behind other countries that have communication technologies and curriculum in place. We need to educate students that can adapt and learn in this quick paced “flat” world. We must have a vision and have a plan to carry it out. This website is thorough and complete. Leaders of education and technology have created a vision with foresight on many different interconnected levels. Stop by Route 21 to see how the group Links 21st Century skills with support systems and resources. 

Being a Social Studies “geek”, I am happy and surprised that the Social Sciences of History, Economics, Geography, Government and Civics are core content areas that this group highlights as relevant for 21st century learners. Standardized tests create a narrow vision of education being centered through Language Arts and Math departments. In my opinion, Social Studies have been pushed to the side by the NCLB driven test frenzy. Look at these interdisciplinary themes suggested for 21st Century success that are saturated with Social Studies content! 

• Global Awareness
• Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy
• Civic Literacy

So what’s the catch? Is this pie in the sky optimism that we can bring this new age of learning to the fore front of our educational system? Can our system change as dramatically as the Partnership calls for.... or are we doomed to education being bogged down by the same old bureaucratic quagmire of the past? Although this is a “dialogue about education", this is also backed by many big companies  like Dell, Cisco, ATT, etc ... a who’s who in the technology industry. They are trying to advocate for a better trained American workforce for business reasons.  The workforce is changing  therefore so does the education system that supplies them (Levy & Murname, 2005). If we don’t supply a workforce with 21st century skills these same companies have already started going elsewhere like India and China.

One of the implications here is that while a roadmap and vision for the future is in place, the future is now. We as a collective nation must make dramatic changes quickly. As an educator I must lead by example and immerse myself in teaching the skills for the future. Students already are digital natives and they must see me as one also. I agree with Partnership’s position that standardized tests for accountability are needed ,so to are classroom assessments that challenge students to become adaptive learners. Students must embrace this technology. Many are technically advanced in the social use of technology but do not know how to use the technology in an academic setting (Miners and Pascopella, 2007).

References

Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62. 

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34. 

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf

I teach eighth grade, early United States History. Being new to blogging as an educational tool, I thought I would first create an assignment for students that I already give. I have students do a current events assignment every other week in my class. In this way students would do something differently and have students do different things at the same time. One of the purposes is to show that the people from the past had similar issues. The issues that people struggle with are not new, just different. I will post current events links to the blog and allow the students to have a choice of what they want to blog about. This is still in the infancy stage and I will have to work with the district to allow it. This would be a no brainer as students can not only access text but video of an event making it more interactive and realistic to their way of viewing the world. This makes blogging a “democratic tool” which will differentiate and empower students (Richardson) I thought to begin with I could choose issues and give prompts for students write to and respond. Eventually I would want students to seek out and submit their own current events issues. My first teaching issue is how to get students to use correct etiquette and write to the “world audience”. A second issue would be how to assess and grade the work. Any suggestions?

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.