Disclaimer: This is not a cool tech trick. This is me on my soapbox. If you want a tech trick, please refer to the archives. There's lots of great stuff there!
Day 1: So there I sat, in a conference, learning lots of new stuff. I was constantly texting, tweeting, sending emails, and taking notes in my wiki, which I use for PD. I have to admit, I was out of my element with this conference. The presenters talked about things I had never heard of before. So what did I do? I Googled it. No way I was going to raise my hand in the middle of a conference and ask the presenter what each term meant. There were lots of techie-looking people in that conference room that would laugh at me for being the "stupid one!" Luckily, I didn't have to risk that because Wikipedia answered my question everytime. I did all five of the above listed activities (gasp!) at the same time. I left that day feeling so much more confident in my abilities as a technology specialist. I've always been strong on the curriculum side, but this conference gave me the background from the tech side. I couldn't wait for the next day.
Day 2: That was when it happened. The battery on my laptop died. I had a new battery and was still calibrating it, so I couldn't charge my laptop in my hotel room when I first noticed. No problem - I could charge it during the conference. Well, I thought it wouldn't be a problem, anyway...
When I arrived at my first session, I looked around the edges of the room. There were no, none, zilch power outlets around the room! Still, I'm a problem solver, so I got out the iPhone.
You know how there are commercials on television depicting two unnamed cell phone companies battling for the best 3G network? I'd never had a problem, and thought the commercials were silly until that day. I was apparently in a 3G dead zone. Sending and receiving texts was one thing, but using Twitter, my browser, and even Facebook was not happening. I tried and tried, unfortunately to the point that I killed that battery, too. I only had one option left. The thought of having to take notes on traditional paper (with no table in front of me) was repulsive. I did it, but sure wasn't happy about it. At least I learned a lesson that day to always charge my laptop the night before.
This story might be something for you to chuckle at, or maybe even roll your eyes at. Regardless, this is the story of our students today. There are two kinds of people in the world today - digital natives and digital immigrants. I've said before I'm definitely a digital immigrant, not necessarily because of my age, but because of the small town that I grew up in. Imagine what it's like for our kids, who are definitely digital natives. Imagine what it must be like for them to sit through a lecture, to sit in a hard chair to read a story, to be so disengaged that they're thinking about anything and everything else. That's the "Power down" effect: when kids participate in critical thinking, problem solving, and engaging activities at home with video games or various computer software, then come to school and experience something that involves none of these skills.
Today's generation needs more. They can handle more. Their attention span only lasts about twenty minutes, and that's dependent upon their age. They are multi-taskers, regardless of whether we think they are or not. They want to create, explore, and figure things out. If we want our kids to learn, we have to meet them there.
Let's look at our options. Sometimes you have to lecture (sometimes). Sometimes you have to ask students to read (more often than lecturing). Why not use technology while students are involved in these activities? Need to lecture? Have the kids tweet the main points as they're listening. Have them keep notes in a collaborative document to share out with the rest of the class. They have to read. Instead of answering the questions at the back of the book, have them blog about their reading and reflect on what it means to them. They can comment each other's work and see how the same reading piece meant something else to another student. Need to teach a math process? After teaching the steps, make it real life. Connect it to buying video games, designing a room, playhouse, etc. I know it's not the way we learned, but did the way we learn prepare us for the 21st Century? Think about it - our primary education was geared toward agrarian societies of students that were going to grow up and work in factories. The really smart ones (or the ones whose parents made them) went to college. Did we ever really learn to think? To value ideas? Or were we just doing what the teacher asked so we didn't get in trouble?
I warned you, that was me on my soapbox. I could go on, but I'd just be repeating myself over and over. I have just one thought to leave with you as we consider the shift with technology and society - when I was a child, an abacus was a toy for preschoolers. Now I know several preschoolers who have iPods. How's that for progression?
