Communicating with digital natives in the classroom
September 2009
On short notice I was asked to make a presentation at Pine Manor College in Brookline, MA, August 27th, 2009. The meeting was a collaborative meeting between faculty from New England Institute of Art and Pine Manor College. I talked about communicating with digital natives. It was more of a lively discussion than a lecture - as I was trying to communicate with all of us the 'digital immigrants'.
Based on this graph of the current ‘learning nature’ of our students, here were my initial questions were based on current challenges teachers face:
- Do digital natives think differently?
- what are the ways we can communicate digitally to digital natives?
- what type of digital media do they know as opposed to what students know?
- do those students who have the skills for gaming and texting also have the skills to use new media?
- how do we try and instill in them the soft skills – ceativity, innovation, discipline, communication, socialization, team work etc. in such an environment?
We have challenges there but we also have opportunities:
- we are all in a learning phase
- we are in a transitional period between old ways of teaching and new, which will determine the future of teaching [because after that, the digital natives will take over and it will be they who are the teachers of the future]
No matter what tool we use, here are some important things to remember:
Some tips before integrating any technology:
- remember that technology is just a tool to help you in your performance as a faculty member and to help interactivity in class
- make sure the technology you choose is relevant to the topics you need the students to learn
- do not overwhelm youself with the all these technologies. Take one technology tool at a time, read about it, see who used it and how they used it, view examples of how it was used, and then make a decision on whether it is appropriate for you and your students or not. If yes, then leaarn how to use it youself.
- not all classes need or can use technology integration.
- do not create resources if they have already been created before. Just use the ones already there unless they need major modification.
- use it as fun exercises and do not take yourself or the technology too seriously. :)
