What are the primary challenges facing instructors of digital natives?
One of the primary challenges facing instructors of digital natives is that today students are being exposed to information/technology that the instructor is not aware of or has not yet been taught. Today most teachers are the 'immigrants' realizing that they do not understand the 'language' of today's students. We are still at a point in time where teachers are trying to teach students traditional curriculum in a traditional way. Today's students are bored with that type of mindset. The article was right on point regarding the technology gap. Students of today are so far advanced. Even with school districts bringing in technology expects to train teachers on new software/technology most of the more experienced teachers will go back to their respective classrooms and continue teaching the same traditional way. We will lose more students if this process continues. We must go to their level of thinking, challenging the students will make us (educators) challenge ourselves. We have to move forward because there is no turning back. I agree that today's students' minds are wired differently. Even with speaking with my own children regarding technology they are much more advanced than I am.
I've been thinking...today they are alot of students diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I wonder if the problem is that their minds are so 'highly wired' that 'we' can't keep up with them. That the 'immigrants' are the ones with the true disorder. hmm??
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Glad the article got you thinking!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas. I like thinking about topics like this and searching for ideas about the future.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point of view Char., I agree that the only way we're going to be successful with the new type of students we are encountering is to meet them where they live so to speak while instilling values like respect, consideration and compassion. We must go in with an open mind that we will spend a lot of time in trial and error mode and that's perfectly acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI think you might be on to something with the assessment that students' minds may be wired differently and that we, as "digital immigrants", cannot keep up with them. That would make a lot of sense since many of them have very short attention spans. Hopefully we can help these students with the integration of more technology into the curriculum.
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