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Date Posted: 17:33:04 03/14/11 Mon
Author: ludmila
Subject: final task 3- revised by the group

Task 3- Write a position paper about the digital generation of students and the challenges we face in teaching them.

The new generation of students is defined as Digital Natives, and they are the ones who have always had the technology available just as they had their first baby toys. To picture better the previous statement, one can visualize the development and improvement of technology and connect that to those students growth, who were at the same time, incorporating all those digital gadgets as part of their lives. Those young people grew up in a Digital Era and are guided by electronic devices. That is, they are used to using mobile phones, computers, I-pads, I-pods, etc. They get in touch with their friends through cell phones and mainly through the internet. Text messages are the main tool used by them to communicate with each other. This new generation has already created a new language that facilitates their digital lives. To contrast with this new type of students, were also created the definition of Digital Immigrants, those who were already born before digital technology and had to learn and adapt to this new culture of technology. Digital immigrants are pretty much compared to land immigrants, because some will use the new language and adapt to the new culture of a country better than others, in the same way happens to digital immigrants some will be very fluent in using technology while others will struggle a lot to benefit from it. Those definitions were created and proposed by Prensky (2001), and according to him the Educational System needs to change and is carving for a new methodology that would better fit and be more attractive for all Digital Natives, who are so used to with video games, emails, text messaging, social network and who are very multi-tasking type of people.

There is a tendency to think that teachers are from a different land than students, but reality is a little contrary to that. In every generation there is a gap, and it is the teachers’ duty in all stages of humans’ history to learn how to adapt to the language talked by younger generations, in order to decrease this empty space provoked by what is not comprehensible. In other words, changes are always welcome during all history of educational practice, especially in this new Era. So, in order to improve education and to create a reachable approach to this new type of student, what was being done during the teachers’ time has to change. The way a school subject was taught and how teachers learned cannot be the same for this new age of students, and in order to achieve those who are so used to quick thinking and doing so many things at the same time. Prensky (2010) suggested that the subjects brought by teachers in the classroom should be real and relevant to students’ concepts, and should not be just a preparation for a test, adding up the author also made some suggestions of how teachers can improve their practice.

Simple changes can make a big difference in the classroom, so if teachers want to reach their students they should: understand students’ passions and interests; guide students to become more independent and research for themselves; give students’ time to relax and think about the importance of everything; bring activities that have a motivational stimulus, and more. Those are ways pointed by Pransky (2010) and ideas that focus in helping kids to achieve their bests by giving them spaces to be original.

With all researches made in the Educational field during the past decades, now it is finally easy to perceive, that teachers’ role have changed completely. Teachers were seen as owner of the truth before, and now they have to act as a guide of students’ discoveries. The type of school that poets like Drummond and philosophers like Piaget, had described for many centuries, it is finally making sense. Students no longer need to hear about experience, they want to experiment facts and they need to conclude things for themselves. Actually all students from all times needed that, unfortunately technology from past time did not allowed that type of discovery. So if in the past they lacked technology and sensibility to understand and to perceive students’ needs, nowadays it is more than clear what Digital Natives want, and that is: a guide who helps them to be themselves while using technology as a facilitator to do tasks.

Using blackboards and text books do not keep students’ attention anymore. Educators tend to think that students are lazy and do not want to learn. It is common nowadays to see teachers complaining about their students as not responsive, as feeble minded and mainly as hyperactive. What educators should keep in mind is that the new generation of students has changed a lot comparing with those of Twenty years ago. They, absolutely, cannot stand sitting in a desk just looking at the board and taking notes. Actually educators must change their ways of teaching becoming close to technology and using new tools in order to enrich their classes to better fit students demand. We live in an age where it is common for children with hyper hyperactivity or attention deficit. Therefore, it is more noticeable the need to provide our students with dynamic activities, varied and, preferably, based on the tools they use: orkut, msn, blogs, twitter, video games, etc.

In the conference presented at Columbia University about Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants, Harding (2010) expressed that a great deal of pressure is made for teachers to incorporate the technology in the classroom, but according to this presenter usually teachers are very skeptical about the use of those gadgets for teaching and don’t know how they can apply them correctly for educational purpose. He also stated that if teachers feel that students are so different from themselves, it can build a bigger barrier in the classroom and by that the subject being taught can even further from students’ reach. When teachers learn that they are not that different from their students, they are than changing their approach towards practice and by that probably, better results can be obtained.

Teachers have many challenging when teaching this new generation, from competing for attention, to create a more interesting class, it can all be accomplished from the moment teachers believe and perceive themselves differently. Harding (2010) said that just because teachers are not Digital Natives, it does not mean they cannot be good in using technology, they can as long as they are willing to try to learn how to use the digital technology for their own benefit.

REFERENCES
http://pt.scribd.com/doc/49868046/prensky-2001 PRENSKY, M. Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants.
http://pt.scribd.com/doc/49864041/THE-DIGITAL-GENERATION-2 GIBSON,T.L. The Digital Generation: Teaching a population that speaks an entirely new language.
http://etcjournal.com/2010/07/12/4918/ PRENSKY, M. Simple Changes in Current Practices May save our Schools, 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CL7pgOpoLY HARDING, T. Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants: Implications for the Classroom.

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