"How do we learn to teach in ways in which we never learned to learn?"

      My learners are high school student’s that are part of generation Z. They are “true digital natives”, they do not know a world without fast technology (Lyon, 2010). However, because of their socio-economic status, at least 70% are considered low-income, many do not have internet at home. I would estimate that half do not have internet at home. However, many of my students will tell me that they go to their friend’s house to use their internet. About 80% have a cell phone and about half of those are smart phones. (Note that I am making estimates based on when I see my students using them, I plan to survey them at the beginning of the year so I can get a better idea of how they use technology.) I also have a few students involved with gangs and drug dealing and they are absent often. This can be frustrating when many of them have given up in education and think that they will be fine dealing drugs or just getting a job at McDonalds or something like that.

       My school received a 1:1 grant from the state so each student would get a laptop within 4 years. However, I just found out that the grant fell through due to funding and now we are going to take the laptops we have received and put them on carts and share them in our departments. For the past 2 years I have had an interesting experience with the laptops. The students were allowed to take them home and use them for school purposes. However, most of the students did not care to use them for school and would rather use them for fun. It was a struggle for me to get the students to bring the laptops to class. They complained that they did not use them in their other classes and they did not want to carry them around for nothing. For my freshmen, I started doing daily assessments on moodle and it forced them to bring them and they were better about it, but my sophomores were unreliable when it came to bringing them. Luckily one of the teachers got a grant to purchase 10 additional laptops and we shared them on a cart for those kids who did not get one (our upperclassmen didn’t have them) or for those who did not bring them for various reasons. In this experience, I have learned that you have to utilize technology in a way that convinces the students it’s worth it, otherwise it’s just another boring task they got to do. This year I think having shared carts (hopefully there isn’t too much “fighting” for them) will be good because now every student can use a laptop in class and I don’t have to worry about them not bringing them.

From cdevroe.com

    Having computers in the classroom is very different from the way I learned in school. When I was really young I remember going to the computer lab and learning to type and play Oregon Trail. As I got older though, my teachers did not have us use computers for learning often. I typed reports but that was it. I started to become more tech-savvy in college using excel and PowerPoint (I had never used them before). The social-networking boom also happened my   freshmen year of college. For my students, social networking is natural for them and I know some of them know how to use PowerPoint and some even know excel. When I was in school, it was mainly lecture and worksheets with a few projects here and there. I did have AP classes and they were more challenging, but it was basically memorize a bunch of facts and hope you do well on the tests. The unfortunate thing I observe at my school is teachers still teaching the same way they did when I was a student (I teach at the high school I went to). One time I walked into one my former teacher’s classroom and the kids looked bored to death. They were still giving them notes on the whiteboard! After using laptops in the classroom the past 2 years and just gaining teaching experience in general, I know I have to teach in a very different way from the way I was taught. I think if I can master skills and utilize resources and get my students creating, and then I will have less frustrating days dealing with discipline and more dealing with their projects and what they are learning.

         Comfort with technology and proficiency are very different. I have had to help students with basic things like copy and paste or saving a document. They can Facebook all they want, but it doesn’t mean they know how to do the basics of computing when it comes to documents or presentations. I have learned that it is important to assess their experience with certain computing skills and tools before having them work on something. Usually I demonstrate how to do something on the board and I have even written out directions for those who may not know how to do something. It is important to keep these things in mind; otherwise they will view the project as frustrating or confusing and will not want to do it or it will not be effective. The easier you make it, the more motivated they are in doing something and I believe they get more out of the activity.

         When I think about what would be most effective for my learners I think of a bottom up approach first, where they learn the basics then build their knowledge upon that. In most of the subject areas for science, the students have limited knowledge on the subject, especially in Biology. However, I think with them having technology at their finger tips, I could do more top down strategies in case I did have students that have background information in the subject matter and according to Horton (2006) it saves time since you are not covering material that they know already. I think of combination of these strategies will be useful, the bottom up approach can be used to get the vocabulary needed (they have very poor vocabulary) for projects and then once they have established the vocabulary then they can do projects and problem solve, filling in additional knowledge as needed.

        I also like the idea of constructivism where they build ideas from their experiences (Wikipedia, 2011). Our life is science and I always try to get them to connect what we are doing with something they may know already. For example, I talk about cellular respiration and relate it to exercise and diet. I think technology will help them expand this knowledge because they can find out more about.

         Of course they need to be able to connect their ideas with others and so I hope to engage them in connectivism as well. Especially where it says “Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill” (Verhagen, 2006). In science there are so many connections between the topics and my students do not see them, I want to be able to get them to connect the ideas together. I also want to the students to work together and learn from each other’s ideas. Limiting teacher oriented activities and letting the students work together to learn. Siemens discussed being transparent online (UOC, 2010). That the more you put yourself out there, the more you may learn from the connections you make online with others who are interested in your interests. I really liked that idea and hope I can get my students to see the benefits of this.

Here's his discussion on this-

      The only barriers that exist in my opinion are the student’s motivation and lack of experience doing higher level thinking. They are used to being spoon-fed answers and memorizing facts. When you present them with something that challenges their thinking, some students shut down because they think it’s too hard. I have to try to get them to overcome this. I know some of their reading abilities are low, but to me that is no excuse. Now that there are search engines that allow you to customize reading levels, they should be able to find something that they can handle. To overcome these barriers I have to get them to use these tools and have them find success using them. Math skills are also lacking, but again I review them and there are many tools online to help them with math and they know they can come to me for help, it’s their motivation to get help that is lacking. Finally, group projects are somewhat difficult for my shy students or for kids who are absent frequently. I try to make the shy kids feel comfortable, but some of them come from a very poor family life and have a hard time socializing with the others. For the kids who are absent, it is usually related to something outside of my class and I do not have much control over it. For the kids who are there I have to keep them motivated and give them choices and let them keep things interesting. I know I have to teach differently than how I learned and it may be uncomfortable at first, but I think the rewards will be worth it in the end and keep me in the profession for a long time to come. I just hope that I can help my fellow colleagues, and through this new networking I’m discovering other teachers as well, to embrace the changes that are NEEDED to help these kids learn and become productive members of society.

A reflection of these ideas and what is needed to teach the digital natives-




References

Constructivism (learning theory). (2011, June 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:47, August 9, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.phptitle=Constructivism_(learning_theory)&oldid=436878362

Horton. W. (2006). E-Learning By Design. (p. 25, 27) San Fransico, CA. Pfeiffer.

Lyon, E. (2010). Examining Generation Z: Stats, Demographics, Segments, Predictions. Retrieved from http://sparxoo.com/2010/02/23/examining-generation-z-stats-demographics-segments-predictions/

Thomps2210 (Poster). Reaching &Teaching the Digital Generation [Video]. (2010, January 13) Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq-6zyZARPo&feature=related

UOC (Poster). George Siemens - Connectivism: Socializing Open Learning [Video]. (2010, June 15) Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL_lsogeN

Vehagen. P.W. (2006) Connectivism: a new learning theory? Retrieved from: http://elearning.surf.nl/e-learning/english/3793