Blog #3

Blog #3 Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

The idea that students now are identical and should learn in the same ways that their teachers learned when they were students is crazy as suggested by Marc Prensky in the first of his two articles. I remember coming up through school, teachers used to always use the phrase, “back when I was in school….” I always thought to myself and wanted to say out loud, “well guess what? We aren’t back in that time so what does that matter?” Prensky points out that students growing up as these Digital Natives are different than the generation that is teaching them. They are perfectly capable of doing the work and staying focused, but because of the technological wave that they have grown up in, from no fault of their own, they need to be taught in a way that reflects their culture that they have learned. I would argue that the different technological advances with computers, video games, etc… is a part of this generations culture. As we endlessly have discussed in our education classes, it is important to understand each persons culture and try to teach in a way that the child can most effectively learn. For most students in today’s generation, I would argue that this wouldn’t be by teaching the way that the “Digital Immigrants” learned when they were growing up.

For me personally, I believe that I am caught somewhere between the two categories mentioned previously. I still really like having hard copies of important information in a world that is becoming more and more paperless. However, the technology is not foreign to me as I am perfectly capable of interacting through cell phones and the ever-changing social media sites. These articles were interesting to me because I feel like I have some good first hand experience with the different generations and ways of doing things. As a side job while going to school, I coach basketball at the private school that I attended. (This may be kind of a stretch but I think it relates) When I played basketball there, practicing and playing during the season was all we cared about. There weren’t the ‘other’ distractions going on all over the place to worry about. We went to school, did our work, and then spent the rest of the day devoted to working hard for basketball. In just a very short amount of time since I graduated, you can already see the difference in our team now with the way they approach things. They all have facebook, twitter, etc… that they are constantly posting too. It’s very difficult to even keep their attention through a two hour practice each day. Point being, if we can’t even keep their attention in a sport without adapting to their ways of doing things then how can we expect to be able to keep their focus in the classroom by teaching in ways that aren’t the best to suit their more advanced lifestyles.

In the “Reading a Text” article, Moyer brings up a couple of ways that technology has been used to appeal to these Digital Natives. Even since I’ve graduated high school, devices such as the kindle, nook, and Sony reader have become popular ways to read that are attractive to this new generation. The students or whatever readers are still participating in reading but in a way that they don’t feel like they are just holding a book. I think sometimes just holding a piece of technology to read makes it a less painful activity for the students as crazy as that sounds. However, this type of reading or listening to an e-book are no less a form of literacy than reading a hard copy. I feel that it is important to bring the technological advances that are occurring in the real world into the school system. WHY NOT? It only engages student’s brains and allows them to enjoy school a little more. There is nothing wrong with having something enjoyable in the school.

The “Digital Literacies Go To School” article focused on the idea of attempting to combine old and new ideas into the teaching methods in the classrooms today. I thought this was a pretty good way of saying that we can still use some of the old things of the past that have worked previously. Just because the students are changing doesn’t mean everything teachers have ever done needs to be thrown out the window. With that being said, some of the old ways of teaching need to be altered in order to best teach as many students in today’s generation as possible. Because the ultimate goal of being a teacher should be to most effectively teach as many students as possible in a way that will benefit their life. 

Moyer, J. (2011). What Does It Really Mean to "Read" a Text?. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(3), 253-256.

O'Brien, D., & Scharber, C. (2008). Digital literacies: Digital literacies go to school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 66-68.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Prensky. M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-9.

Blog Post #2

Blog #2

As I have previously stated, reading has never been something that I have really enjoyed. Instead, I have always been one to learn methods and enjoy applying them to problems. This explains why I enjoy working in Math. In the article, “Popular Culture Texts,” Hall makes some points early in the article that I could relate to. Hall explains that part of literacy requires complete comprehension of what you are reading.

“Doing so requires more than memorizing facts, defining vocabulary words, and answering a set of questions at the end of a chapter.”

When I read growing up, this is the kind of thing I could relate to. I wanted to be given something with a task to do from what I read and then be done. Instead Hall identifies tasks that must be done during comprehension as:

a.     Identifying Main Ideas

b.     Evaluating Evidence

c.      Understanding and Assessing the sources the information is based on

Yuck! What kid learning the importance of reading actually thinks that sounds like fun? NOT ME!

But as we go on through the article, Hall shows how students in schools will use pop culture texts in the classroom to help explain their thoughts with social studies texts. I thought this was really cool and something that I definitely never did but think it would have been helpful. If the students can make connections between something they have read at home and their social studies text that helps them to understand the main points and comprehend the information then more power to them! This adds a little fun to the discussions and would help most people to make that connection if it is brought to attention in class. In my opinion, anything that is reasonable that a student brings into their learning that helps them comprehend information and make connections is awesome and if something from a pop culture book helps them to understand a piece of history better then not allowing them to use that in their discussion is hindering their learning.

The “Watch and Learn” article was the most interesting of all of the articles in my opinion. I had never really thought of subtitles as a way of learning to read even though I can connect with that through previous Spanish classes. We would often watch movies that we were familiar with in English but the language and subtitles would be set to Spanish in an effort to help us become better Spanish speakers and readers.

I think this is a great idea in the early grades because it allows students to become more confident readers but even more importantly in my opinion, it puts reading in a context of something fun. Most young students see reading as just a boring task that takes time and keeps them from doing something they like. However if you put reading into something such as watching a movie with only subtitles, you allow that kid to do something they like to do while also having to read. I think this a great way to encourage reading and improve their literacy because it isn’t going to put a bad taste in their mind of what reading involves. 

Hall, Leigh A. (2011). How Popular Culture Texts Inform and Shape Students’ Discussions of Social Studies Texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,55(4), 296-305.

Shah, R. Watch and learn - The Boston Globe. Boston.com - Boston, MA news, breaking news, sports, video. January 22, 2012, http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/09/19/watch_and_learn/?page=full 

Blogging and Reading Across the Curriculum

Blogging and Reading Across the Curriculum

Blogging is a very new experience for me. I have never been one to thoroughly enjoy reading for fun or writing out my thoughts just for the heck of it or to provide me with something I can re-read in the future. I have never felt the need to put my thoughts in words for my own benefit but rather only if I am having to turn it in.

As the blogging article suggests, times are changing for the middle school students and even some of the younger students. Almost all young teenagers and pre-teens have various social media sites such as twitter and facebook and they are constantly sharing thoughts, actions, or activities that they are currently engaging in. This is very different from my childhood. While some people had myspace or xanga during middle school, I never had these and most student’s lives didn’t constantly revolve around the posts that they make. Because their lives revolve around the advances in technology that are constantly occurring, teachers now can use blogging as an opportunity to bring technology into the classroom. If students are given the opportunity to reflect on something through a blog post rather than write a formal paper, most students would view this as a much less stressful task and something that could be seen as fun rather than the idea of slaving over a paper. Teachers are still being given the opportunity to assess whatever knowledge they need to but in a less formal way and students can use some of the many hours they devote to facebook and twitter postings to creating their own blog.

Reading across the curriculum was an idea that was very interesting however, very foreign to me. Prior to reading the article by Sanacore and Palumbo, I didn’t really know many of the ideas that were meant by “Reading across the curriculum.” I have never been a big fan of reading and generally only read books that are assigned to me for school. It’s not that I’m not interested in anything because I love to read the local newspapers to see what’s going on in the community or country but I generally have no desire to read things that are fiction or have no chance of happening such as the harry potter series or the hunger games. Nobody get too upset with me for that as I know I am in the minority.

The article made some very good points in my mind when it comes to what should be involved when talking about reading as part of the curriculum. I thought providing a significant amount of time during the school day was a very interesting and good idea that should be incorporated into schools more. Time for reading is generally assumed to be time that is spent at home and not in the classroom. I think that automatically makes reading become associated as something negative because most kids would rather do something active. If in the classroom, teachers allow students with time to read, they are showing it is important enough to spend valuable class time on that task. When educators say that there isn’t enough time in the year to provide for reading during the day, that can suggest that reading isn’t as important as the other tasks that are being done during that time in the day. I think if I had been given time during the school day that was devoted specifically to reading, it would have made me not only a better reader but made me more willing to read outside of the classroom. If reading is so important to the education of young students and middle school students, they must be shown that the educators are willing to provide some valuable time during the day for reading.

-Matt Reynolds