Digital Natives VS Digital Immigrants

This podcast was created to explore the digital abilities and digital learning styles of the students interviewed. The three students interviewed are 18 years old. The students are all from upper middle class families in New Jersey. I asked the same three   questions to each student.

1.Are you exposed to technology on a daily basis?

2.Do you have access to technology at home?  At school?

3.Do you use technology for social purposes?   For homework?   In school for projects?

My classroom is composed of middle school students who are in the same demographics as my sample except for age. All three students are digital natives exposed to technology from an early age and all three use technology for academic, social and entertainment purposes. They all multi-task and prefer immediate feedback. They have face book accounts, text and chat on a daily basis. All three play video games when bored. They do not use wiki, blogs or podcast but know what they are. In college they have access to technology in class every day.

Technology has changed today’s classroom environment. It has changed the way students’ access information. Students are able to search for information faster than going to the library or looking up information in an encyclopedia at home. As the cell phone is ending the land line era, the internet is ending written material. Digital Natives are reading the news online; using technology everyday while digital immigrants are aware but sometimes apprehensive of technology.

This course has helped me develop my own technology skills as a competent teacher. The classroom teacher needs to address a difficult dilemma that pits a student body that has grown up immersed in technology against a teaching faculty that is less agile with the tools of the trade (Richardson, 2010). I started this course with the belief that I would learn skills for presenting information in class; instead I learned skills to present to students to use in class. I now view technology tools such as blogs, wikis and podcasts as effective tools students can use. I believe that collaboration and creative thinking are two productive instructional strategies that can create engaging middle school math lessons. This class has helped me understand effective technology tools can help create this enchanting atmosphere.

I also have a deeper knowledge of the teaching and learning process using technology in my classroom. I need to understand technology as the leader of the class. Teachers need to guide and lead the learners instead of presenting. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a website with tools and information geared toward helping teachers and students become familiar with technology and the potential it has in class.

I have changed my perception from being teacher centered to learning centered. I believe that students in a learning centered class develop a respect for their work. Technology tools create a positive learning environment. Students are able to collaborate with others effectively using tools such as Wiki’s, blogs and podcasts. As a teacher, I can monitor and provide needed instruction to a heterogeneous class using learning centered techniques.

I can continue to expand my knowledge of teaching and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement. I have the responsibility as an educator to ensure every student reaches his or her potential. In order to achieve this success, I need to utilize technology tools to fit the lesson with teach learner. This process includes creating individual lessons for over achievers as well as under achievers. It is also essential to keep all learners engage to increase student achievement.

There are several goals I have for this year in order to transform my classroom into a 21st Century environment. The first goal is to create an engaging classroom environment where students want to enter. I will incorporate the daily use of blogs, wikis, podcast, and social connections in class. Students will develop e and use collaboration skills that they will need to use in the future workforce. A second goal is to utilize the P21 website. The site is a wealth of information for teachers and students to utilize in class. The Partnership for 21st Century skills provides it members with tools and resource to help fuse the 3R’s and 4C’s (Partnership for 21st Century Skills). A third goal is to acknowledge and accept the difference between the digital natives and digital immigrants. This will help me stay focused when dealing with classroom management issues. The students are all digital natives and have been exposed to technology their entire life (Prensky, 2001). I am a digital immigrant learning and thinking different from my students.

In conclusion, the check list we completed at the start of this course regarding technology in class has not changed. I would like to review the list again at the end of this semester. I plan to use the many tools I learned in this class including blogs, wikis, and pod-casts.

References

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. (n.d.). http://www.p21.org/images/stores/other

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, “digital immigrants”. On the horizon, 9(5).

Richardson, W.(2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3^rd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

The partnership for 21^st Century skills (P21) is a detailed website that clearly gives educators information needed to integrate technology in the classroom. It has powerful features such as blogging, social media integration tools, teachers’ information area and a clear mission statement. The website design looked professional and was easy to navigate creating a positive first impression. P21 provides current information which verifies there is ongoing support. The website’s social media network is setup to identify and reach target audiences. This creates the capability to measure goals and objectives from valuable current users.  The graphic design was simple with a professional image and logo that builds recognition.

The information that helped me develop a new understanding of the issues surrounding 21^st century skills is it is user friendly. Many questions were answered after browsing the site. I found the website was accurate containing useful detailed information for teachers. I also found this site to be credible since the members and key partners were all giant corporations and agencies. Federal and state policymakers support the professional development P21 is presenting now and preparing for the future. The P21 Mission statement is clear and to the point. The explanation of the integration of the 3R’s and 4C’s in today’s classroom helped me understand why integrating technology in class is a necessity. The partnership helps teachers incorporate the 4C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity) in class.

The 21^st Century Skills supplies neutral information on the site making it difficult finding information to disagree with. It would be useful to have a step by step plan to integrate technology in the classroom utilizing the tools from the website. P21 could create a feature with websites, and tools for teachers integrating technology for the first time.

The positive effect of the partnership for 21^st Century skills on student learning is a necessity in today’s’ diverse classroom. Students who engage in collaborative settings using technology have a high performance level. The P21 content enables student to master critical thinking and creativity skills in order to compete in today’s workforce. P21 framework is based around critical skills that students need to achieve success for state content area.  “Students must learn the essential skills for success in today’s world, such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration (http://www.p21.org) .

In conclusion, the Partnership for 21^st century skills offers an abundance of information geared toward integrating technology in today’s classroom. The students in the USA need teachers to conduct class integrating technology in the lesson. The partnership for 21Century skills provides ideas and tools to educate our students. We must change the way we teach and understanding of how students use technology every day (Laureate, 2010).

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010).  “Skills for the 21^st Century”

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009).  Retrieved from http://www.p21.org

Welcome to using technology in the middle school math classroom blog. I am a novice teacher attempting to collect different solutions for problem situations as they arise in class.  I would like to exchange techniques, lesson plans and ideas with other teachers in order to engage all learners in today’s diverse classroom.

First, I would like to develop lesson plans to accommodate students who lack prior knowledge needed to learn a new math concept.  The lesson plans collected, will be organized in 4 categories which are: Number & Operations, Algebra, Geometry and Data Analysis.

In the future, I will incorporate different classroom management skills. I will organize this topic into two divisions:  one division will have categories for time of year or activity. The second division will have categories for classroom discipline solutions using technology to engage the difficult student.

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