I realized this year that I have been stereotyping our youth. Like the mid-thirties person that I am, I speak of days that were pre-cellphone, involved looking up books at the library using a card system and finding/siting sources using the encyclopedia (a special shout out to s-sh for keeping my alphabet game tight). So how have I been stereotyping our youth, for lets see, the last decade. I have been stereotyping by believing that all youth are tech fluent.
Monday, September 18th, 2017 is when this fact hit me. After explaining to a student how to complete a selective screenshot, rename the image and then upload it to his drive, it hit me; I know more about technology (that matters to me) than 95% of my students. Now, if your following, the key word is "matters to me". Snapchat, Instagram and making phone calls through Facebook (which is another funny story) do not play into my daily routine. Now, I understand this is a completely bias way to view technology, but I wonder if students can teach themselves the ins and outs of apps mentioned above, why is accessing documents within the cloud and creating flawless looking slideshows feel like you are forcing students to write their name over and over again? Somewhere, there have been a disconnect and Mishra puts it perfectly as the "New Media Ecology". Through various personal investigations, professional developments and a steady stream of emails aimed at pitching new technologies, I have became "tech flexible". I have had to use technology to design lessons, respond to admin, post observation notes, communicate with friends, send invitations, build curriculum and pay utility bills. Most of our students have done one, maybe two of these. To build in this idea of tech flexibility, exposure and time are needed. Recently, students collected data from a school waste audit, sorted the data and expressed the data within Desmos. Man did kids have a hard time with Desmos, until they didn't. It took about 2 separate attempts before they got the hang of the program. There graphs are accurate, the are labeled and scaled and they even printed them remotely before taking the prehistoric ruler and putting a trend line on it. Now it is on to Flipgrid. So, how does technology look in my world? Messy. Fun. Playful. Engaging. Frustrating. I am convinced though, that exposure is the key. Build a slideshow, answer a question with a video, access a Google doc via Google classroom, it is these actions that are going to advance our learners into the 21st century. It is also this flexibility that will allow students to have choice over their technologies which creates ownership and engagement. What an exciting and frightful time to be an educator!
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Joseph WilliamsI have a love for getting students jazzed about math, art and food. Currently educating youth at an alternative high school program in Portland. Archives
November 2017
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