Article Assessment #1: Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants, by Marc Prensky

In his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part I, Marc Prensky expounds on the importance of acknowledging and addressing the unique educational needs of "Digital Natives," those who grew up immersed in media and communication technology, adding that the public education currently being provided to them by "Digital Immigrants," those who witnessed digital technology's emergence in their lifetimes, is vastly insufficient and unsuitable. He makes the point that most of today's students, all the way from Kindergarten to College, are Digital Natives, and that it is likely that there are singular differences between the way these kids are prepared to process information and the way prior generations were prepared to do the same thing; namely, that Digital Natives have been programmed by television, video games, cell phones and the internet, among other technology, to function best in an environment that is highly stimulating, fast-paced, randomly-accessible, and entertaining.

Prensky asserts that today's up-and-coming generation of students is less likely to be able to learn from "conventional" schooling methods but may be compensated for this handicap by having increased facility with learning from stimulating, fast-paced, randomly accessible, and entertaining lessons modeled after digital formats that they're used to, such as video game formats. He also argues that public educators don't do nearly as much as they should to tap into their students' affinities for all things digital, and that there is an urgent need for public educators to wake up, stop "grousing" about their kids' lack of desire to engage, and start digitally entertaining their students' brains.


Read more. . .

Anthrotech

In my week-long quest for answers concerning availability of and attitude towards educational technology at West Anchorage High School, I came to the conclusion that many staff members are simultaneously very proficient when it comes to attaining the tech hardware and software they desire and yet are also somewhat dissatisfied with the level of support they get from the school and district in terms of troubleshooting their tech. My full report can be viewed here.

The most popular answer to the question, "Do you think there is a prevailing attitude towards technology at West, was generally, "It really varies from teacher to teacher," followed by, "Are you asking about Zangle? Zangle, the new district-wide mega-grading/attendance software, is by far the most controversial piece of technology on the school consciousness this year. Direct questioning about "your attitude towards technology" usually produced fairly non-committal, diplomatic answers like, "It is of course great to use technology in the classroom, but sometimes it can be more trouble than it's worth," while more specific questions like, "How do you think your administration does with technology?" or "How do you feel about Zangle?" often produced much more illuminating results!

The express opinion of one of the three Technology Coordinators at West was that the vast majority of teachers at our school use technology appropriately for a small number of things and do what they need to do, almost always complying with district-instituted technology practices (like entering attendance via Zangle), but that there are always a few who either hate technology on principle or overuse it to their students' detriments. Interestingly, it seems that the most technologically inclined teachers are also the most dissatisfied with the way technology is handled at the school and district level. A very common sentiment was frustration that the district and school really push technology but provide very little support to those teachers who do bother to use it. Zangle and the slow server have both put a huge strain on Ed Tech/Teacher relations this year. No one likes to have to learn a new grading program, no matter how good it is, and it is easy to blame the new program for any problems that arise.

Opportunities:

• There are many digital tools and computer labs available to be borrowed or reserved for class projects, more than many schools have, and it's relatively easy to sign up for these resources. The people who control the technology budget are very open to suggestions and try to get new technology ordered and in to teachers who request them ASAP. One math teacher I interviewed requested an Interwrite Pad and received it, complete with supporting technology like a dedicated computer and projector stand, in less then three months. This is from the date he first thought of asking for it.

Limitations:

• One limitations is definitely the fact that half our tech team is flying by the seat of its pants, struggling just to keep the school's computers running while they learn their jobs. Another limitation is always funding, but that is definitely less so in the case of West High, who has more rich alumni donors than usual for a school of its size and brilliant teachers able to write technology grants. Teacher morale and disillusionment with technology is a serious barrier in this school, as many who have tried to implement really cool tech in the past have been let down by school tech that was too clumsy and couldn't handle the new technology. It is also a widely held belief that those in the district offices are out of touch with the kids, schools, and teachers, and so technology mandates from above are generally treated with scorn.
  

Potential:

• I think West High has a really high number of tech savvy students and teachers, so if someone wanted to give the ASSIST (Advanced Students Supporting, Instructing, and Servicing Technology) program a serious go it could be really awesome. Goodness knows the tech team needs some help getting teachers the tech support they need. Also, there are a lot more digital tools and lab rooms available for reservation than are generally used by teachers, and the district pays for a lot of expensive technology resources that most teachers don't even know exist, many of which are actually quite good. As the Science Department has demonstrated, if you ask for it, it can be attained. . . the only question left on most people's minds at that point is, "Will it work, and if it doesn't, will we be able to figure out why?" The answer is usually yes, but it takes a long time.

Futuring. . . what a fantastic title!

When we ask or allow our students to use technology to create presentations, we obviously have to think about grading a little differently. Two student-created multimedia presentations can be found here and here. As our MAT class discussed in Sitka this summer, just after viewing the "School Train" video linked to above, it can be easy to fall into the trap of grading multimedia presentations based on flashiness alone, especially when the presentation utilizes technology beyond the teacher's ken. Similarly, it can be tempting to judge presentations too harshly when the technical details are neither perfectly done nor particularly flashy. So I would choose to return to my low-techgrading roots when assessing assignments such as "School Train" and "Fox Becomes a Better Person." The basis of the assessment would have to be a rubric, hopefully one that the students are familiar with before they ever begin the project! Sample Rubric Elements:

1. Did they follow directions? "Fox" would probably do better on that one than "School Train." The latter's message was extremely ambiguous.
   
2. Did the chosen media types and effects enhance the message, or distract from it? "Fox" would fare better on this count. There was way too much going on in "School Train."
   
3. Was it a finished presentation? Both videos were very nicely done, showing attention to detail.
   
4. Does the presentation clearly communicate student understanding of the subject matter? This may be the most important one, and I think both videos accomplished it fairly well.

On another multimedia-related note, the web video Epic 2015 is an extremely interesting commentary on the past, present, and possible future of the Information Age. This truly thought-provoking video takes our current trajectory towards limitless and unregulated information and self-publishing and runs with it, positing that in the very near future print news will be absolutely defunct, most news will be machine-generated and tailored to individual tastes, and because of this, the quality of information available to a person will depend entirely on how much "breadth, depth, and nuance," the person wishes to seek out, aka how "savvy" the person is. Also, anyone and everyone will be able to share/publish as much of their personal life story and knowledge as they see fit, and few distinctions will be made in reporting between fact and mere gossip. This has many implications for my future potential classroom, the largest of which in my eyes are the facts that many students will come to me having already published work on the internet, however informally, and that many will likely arrive greatly impaired in their ability to distinguish facts from opinion and speculation. More Epic 2015 commentary. . .


Watching Do I Belong Here?, Sabrina's journey, I generated a number of ideas for possible projects in a science classroom. One big concept in Ecology is that of the "niche," where you fit in with your fellow organisms and environment. I might ask the students to tell their own story - what their niche was in the past, what it is now, and what they hope their niche will be - similar to Sabrina questioning what she really needed in her life, and whether or not "this" place was where she needed to be. It would also be really interesting to assign students individual organisms whose "niche stories" they'd have to tell, focusing on where they fit in in different habitats and at different stages of their lives. Another possibility is to use this as an inspiration for a beginning of the year get-to-know-you type activity, literally asking the students to share their personal life stories for their own life stories' sake. I'm really excited about that organism "niche story" idea. AHHHH!!!! It's so awesome.