Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

Marc Prensky's idea of digital natives and digital immigrants is fascinating. According to Prensky, digital natives are those who have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using technology-from video games, to TVs, to Internet, to cell phones. Digital Immigrants, he says, are those who were not born into the digital world. Our family got our first computer when I turned 12 but we were one of the few families among my friends that had one.

After reading his articles on the topic ( here & here), I determined that I'm a Digital Native because I grew up surrounded by technology. However, I have some characteristics of a Digital Immigrant, at times, too. I print out all readings from my courses, unless they are over 25 pages. I also print papers and edit to edit it rather than just editing it on the screen. 

I felt very frustrated at the beginning of this online course because almost everything was new to me. I was forced to challenge myself into new technologies that I'd never used before and honestly had very little interest or enthusiasm to do so. However, as time has gone by, I've realized how this digital immigrant in me needs to change for the benefit of my future students. After all, they will need me to incorporate technology into my teaching.

I think part of my frustration with this course was the fact that I didn't know how to use many of the new technology that was introduced. And I think this goes along with not being able to "keep up" with technology. I feel it all moves so fast and you blink your eyes and something new has come out. 

  I am 31 and took quite a few years between my bachelors and my master programs. when i started my master program, I had no idea was google docs was. I felt like I had taken a few years off and suddenly was so far "behind" everyone else in terms of technology.

I disagree that Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants is a generational thing. Instead, I believe it depends on the person. I know plenty of people my parents age who don't have a digital immigrant "accent." I also know a few people my age, in my social group, who don't have a computer or even a smart phone for that matter. 

I completely agree with this PBS Video that says that computers are a privilege that not everyone has access too. People from low-income families who grew up the same time that I grew up do not know how to use much of the technology that I do. And I do not consider myself to be "tech savvy" at all.

Twitter for Teachers & Students

Twitter for Professional Development

Twitter is a great way for teachers to share resources, see different perspectives from other teachers and to create a professional network.  Teachers create and post wonderful resources on Twitter so it is a great place to find resources and share resources with other teachers. Log into Twitter to find out what's working in other classrooms and give it a try! With twitter, you can log in and at your fingertips find solutions to problems you've had in the classroom. If you follow a Twitter chat, this gives you an opportunity to connect and ask and answer questions about a topic that you're interested in. This makes a more informed teacher. There are so many different teaching styles and Twitter is a great way to learn from other teachers.

resources: 15 Ways to Use Twitter In Education




How to Use Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter is not only great for professional development but it's a great way to motivate your students! I love the idea of taking notes on Twitter and sharing them on a class twitter page. When students collaborate in this way, they really help each other out. I also like the idea of using Twitter to post homework assignments or syllabus updates. Students have their phones in their hands every chance they get, so this is a good way for the class to be connected and always know what's going on. I teach ESL so I like the idea of posting videos and word games for students to look at over the weekend. I find many of my students leave school and don't speak English at home. Some of my students want to watch movies in English but feel overwhelmed with the language and the length of movies. One way I helped improve my own Spanish language skills was by watching short youtube videos in Spanish about subjects that interested me. Students could post short youtube videos to the class page and create discussion questions based on the video.

I love the idea of using social media in the classroom because it's a simple way to motivate students and foster learning.

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter Chat

I'm new to Twitter but until recently I was pretty against social networking in general.  After pushing myself on a few social networking sites, I feel I've discovered an amazing new world for educators. After poking around twitter for a couple days, I discovered that it's a great resource for connecting with other language teachers and I realized how great it is for professional development.

One of Twitter's features is something called a twitter chat. They are basically online meetings for people to share something on a topic they are interested in. I've started to follow several other language teachers. I joined a language chat (#langchat ) where teachers get together every Thursday and Saturday. Here, teachers can share resources, ask questions, and "meet" other language teachers.

I attended a Thursday night language chat and not much was happening. I found that one person shared a resource that was a game I can use in my English language classroom. I think twitter chats will be great for my professional development. I searched through #ELLchat and found that teachers shared teaching tips and resources. I look forward to attending more twitter chats and look forward to learning more from other educators. I know that having a wider PLN will help me greatly.

Epals: Where Learners Connect

Epals is a great resource for educators who are looking for project based lesson plan ideas. After browsing through some of the projects on this site, I'm pretty impressed. Many of the science projects that I looked at have students outside collecting various information and then recording it and comparing it to other students' data collection around the world.

I tried to find a simple projects for my students and the topic I chose was weather. There is a project for younger grades that my adult students would be able to do. My students are adult refugees who are learning the very basics of computer and internet skills. This project has students first reading maps to find cities, finding the city's temperature on the internet, and looking at the climate data for that city. They have to decide what the difference is between weather and climate. They also look at the map and compare and contrast different cities.

One of the features of this site that I love is the Educational Resources page, especially Ask an Expert.  I recently did a unit on the Solar System and we could have used this page when questions came up. It's a fun feature and I can totally see my students loving this!

Connectivism through Social Networking: Educator's PLN

The Networked Teacher:

Keeping up with technology is nearly impossible but one way to keep up is to establish a network with other teachers and to explore new technology as much as possible because it changes so often.

It is impossible to know all the answers so it's a great idea for a teacher to network with colleagues to learn from them.

The Educator's PLN is a great social networking site to connect with other teachers. I teach ESL and after a quick search on this site, I found dozens of blogs with teaching tips, lessons, and resources for ESL teachers.

This site can be useful for me if I'm in need of resources on a topic or if I'm struggling with something in the classroom then I can turn to my network for advice. Keeping up with the blogs on this site will help me to get new ideas or to learn from other teachers. This site is great and I encourage you to take a look!

A Learner is Like an Explorer

In the article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, the author, George Siemens, discusses that old learning theories are not relevant in today's technology driven world. Siemens says that Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations and that new information is continually being acquired. In today's information age, one has to constantly search for updated information. This is why I made the analogy that a learner is like an explorer. Learners must continuously search for updated information as the life of knowledge according to Siemens, is now measured in months and years instead of decades, as it used to be.

In the Video, The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature, Siemens says that old theories of learning are at odds with a human desire to externalize. He says, we need to externalize our thoughts to connect with other individuals. A learner must explore various ways of networking with others because as he says, learning is a function of a network. Networking with other individuals can foster this human need to externalize in social spaces and help learners grow.