Generational Differences Readings Entry

For one of our assignments this week, our professor had us read three articles related to whether or not there are generational differences among learners that grew up with technology and learners that did not, and if they are significant enough to consider in our instructional practices. In reading Prensky’s 2001 article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, I was immediately struck by this statement: “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” Who are the people our educational system was designed to teach? It’s been a long time since the design of our current educational system, and I think one could argue that those it was designed to teach have long since expired!

The second thing that struck me in this article by Prensky is that there wasn’t any research mentioned to support his position. My current university experience has trained me to be on the lookout for research-based evidence, and I didn’t find any. Prensky’s perspective was developed as a result of his experiences with his employees and his customers, and his sampling is not indicative of the population at large. It’s no wonder that, although he does make some valid points, Pensky’s article was thoroughly dissected 6 years later by a known expert in the field of educational technology, Mackenzie (2007), for being solely based on his own experiences.

One of the best points McKenzie made in his article, Digital nativism: Digital delusions and digital deprivation is that learners all differ from each other. His words, “Real fifteen year old humans are quite different from each other, a fact that Prensky did not take the time to study or notice. Some love things digital. Some are more interested in a horse or a dog or a walk along the shore” never rang so true. I recently blogged about a third grade student of mine who, although was given an iPad for her own daily use, and access to other digital technologies, consistently chose to use traditional tools for learning. She didn’t feel pressured by her peers, or by me. I also noted that when she arrived home each day, she went straight to her personal electronic devices! Yes, they all differ, and it’s our job as educational technologists to not assume that every student learns the same.

The third article, Do generational differences matter in instructional design?, by Reeves (2008), reviews research-based evidence, and cites that although generational differences do exist in learners, there isn’t enough evidence in support of changing the current design of instruction, or teaching with different educational technologies based alone on these generational differences.

As teachers, we do need to consider that many of our students are avid users of digital technologies and may be more engaged in the content we are teaching if those devices are used, but, again, one size does not fit all, and our lessons must be determined by content and not by instructional tools. If digital technologies can make our lessons more engaging and/or more effective, than we should offer them as a choice. Generalizing instruction based on the age of today’s students is discriminatory, and can be detrimental to learners like the student I previously mentioned. Although Prensky would consider her a “Digital Native”, she preferred all of her learning be done by traditional methods.

Sources:

McKenzie, J. (2007). Digital nativism: Digital delusions and digital deprivation. From Now On, 17(2). Retrieved from http://fno.org/nov07/nativism.html

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants – Part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6). Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf  

Reeves, T.C. (2008). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Online discussion presentation to Instructional Technology Forum from January 22-25, 2008 at http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf  

Guest Blog Entry

I am happy to introduce you all to my guest blogger. Melinda Hagenson. She took her degree from USC in English with emphases in composition pedagogy and 19th century American literature. She’s currently a senior lecturer in the English department at UW Stout ("Wisconsin's Polytechnic University"), and this fall (2015) marks the beginning of her ninth year there and her twentieth as an instructor of college writing. I asked her to write about anything she desired to say to K-12 teachers. Thank you, Melinda.

Three Things You Can Do Now to Help Prepare Your Students for College

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Statistics show that in spite of rising tuition rates, a college education is becoming more and more necessary.  Yet fewer and fewer of the incoming students I meet every fall are adequately prepared for the rigors of college-level thinking and writing.  I hope these few tips will help K-12 teachers as they work to prepare their students for a successful college experience.

1. Encourage Creativity, Confidence, Individuality, and Courage.  Almost all of my incoming first-year students are good at memorizing and parroting back what they’ve read and been told, but most of them are severely deficient in their ability to form and defend their own positions or opinions.  That is, most of them don’t know how to come up with original ideas, and the few who can are often fearful of expressing them.  Too many have been told that “Nobody cares what you think.”
   

In college, we do care what they think.  What they think, in fact, should be the whole point.  I know it’s cliché to say this, but today’s children really are tomorrow’s leaders.  They need to believe their ideas matter.  They need to have confidence, at an early age, that they can change the world.  Not the whole world, of course, but a little piece that they care about.

Questions that disrupt your lesson plan can be frustrating, but the paths these detours can take may wind up providing the most valuable “teachable moments” of your day—and theirs.  If a student brings up a topic that you know is going to derail your whole day, tell her you find her idea very interesting and that you’ll make a note to come back to it later.  Keep that promise.

2. Grammar matters.  Every year I get at least one student who tells me he got A’s all the way through school and nobody ever cared about his grammar.  But in college, we do care.  My students are often dismayed to learn that I will not give an A to a paper riddled with grammatical errors.  A paper with extreme grammatical weakness will receive an F.
   
   

(An aside:  My students are frequently astounded to find that it is possible to receive an F on something they worked hard on.  I don’t grade a paper based on the amount of effort that went into it.  I grade it based on its success as a focused, well-supported argument.)

If your own grammar is sketchy, work to improve it.  This is something you and your students can do together.  You already know that the best way to learn something is to teach it!  

3. A Note on the Five-Paragraph Essay.*  On the first day of class, I ask, “How many of you have spent the past four years perfecting your five-paragraph essay skills to prepare for college?” Usually all but one or two hands go up.  The students whose hands are not in the air swivel their heads around in panic, thinking they are not prepared and that they don’t belong here.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  

Here’s the thing.  I spend my life un-teaching the five-paragraph essay.  It’s a valuable tool, no doubt—there’s no disputing that the “training wheels” it provides can help younger students learn to recognize and eventually master the basics of essay writing—that is, the importance (and the benefits) of keeping an essay focused on proving a single clearly-stated central idea.  

But nobody ever won the Tour de France using training wheels, and college writing is no different. The 5P structure simply doesn’t allow for the complexity most college-level assignments demand.

By the time they leave high school, whether they plan to go to college or not, students should know that there are as many ways to structure an essay as there are topics to write about.  An essay should be organic.  Content should determine form, not the other way around.

College has become almost universally necessary, and the time to start children on the road to a successful college experience isn’t somewhere in the distant future—it’s now.  

Can you think of anything to add to this list? What do you do now to help your students prepare for college?

*A five-paragraph essay is one that begins with an intro containing a three-part thesis.  The intro is followed by three body paragraphs corresponding to and developing the ideas contained in the three parts of the thesis.  The essay then concludes by reiterating the thesis and main points.

Commentary Entry

The Great Divide: Print or Digital?
(Click on the magazine to read the article)

Image: Scott Buschman

Who immediately reads all of the educational publications that they subscribe to when so many other print sources are regularly competing for our attention? Well, it is July, also known as summer vacation for people like us that teach in a traditional classroom. This is the time of year we catch up on ALL of the hot topics that have been discussed throughout the rest of the year. I’m no different than the average procrastinator. First on my hit list as it were, is the dusty stack of California Educator magazines I have been collecting for just this occasion.

One article headline caught my eye back in March when the magazine first appeared in my mailbox. “Print or Digital”? I find it ironic… hold on, let me pause on the irony until after I share my thoughts on the article. It’ll be more impactful.

I am not at all surprised that, given the choice, most students are choosing to read actual books over online books. I have done my own research, albeit with eight-year olds, and found similar results. It started with one very bright little red-haired student who, along with everyone else in my classroom, had access to an iPad all of her own for classroom activities, including reading, writing, and arithmetic (couldn’t help myself). Every day, while the other 27 students were busily clicking and dragging, Laura cast her iPad aside, and on her own, picked up non-digital resources with which to learn.

The moment came where I just had to know why she wasn’t buying into the excitement all around her, so I asked her. Laura’s comments were alike the comments I read in the article. She had trouble finding and keeping her place because she liked to scroll back to connect something she had previously read to something she was currently reading. In addition, she just liked having the book (pencil, paper, etc.) in her hand. As she said, “I don’t see what the big deal is with all of these electronics, anyway”. Now, mind you, Laura is a digital native, that is she grew up on tablets, smart phones, computer-based games… the works! In fact, when she arrived home each day after school, she went straight to her electronics! She just preferred to learn with traditional materials. In fact, as the year went on, more of my students traded in the digital books for traditional books. They liked carrying them around, and they enjoyed placing bookmarks in them.

I still believe in individuality, and knowing my students. One size rarely fits all. Never has, never will. With that comes a responsibility on my part as a teacher to ensure that each student is learning in the best way they can. I do expect my students to spend time with digital resources so they are prepared for online standardized testing, and so that they have the necessary skills to advance their education, and eventually land a job. However, offering print and digital activities gives students the choice to select what works for them, and allows students like Laura to feel confident in her learning. I realize that in some cases both types of materials cannot be offered, especially with our state set on digitizing textbooks for all students, but until that time comes…

Now, for my irony… While I was typing this blog commentary, I had both the paper version and the online version of the article open, and giggled out loud when I found myself reading from them both.

Discussion Question Entry

Discussion Question: Why blog in a third grade classroom?

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I have been using my blog as an example for what my third graders will start doing next month, but I’m going to switch it up a bit for this assignment. Trying to find a topic that all 22 or so of us has experience in, or opinions on was tough. I think I read that not everyone in our Blogging class is a classroom teacher, or even involved with students so if the discussion question does not apply to your current position, feel free to improvise on your answers, just to keep the discussion going. I need the practice!

Although I consider myself to be a technology trendsetter in my school environment, not everyone sees it that way. Each time I implement a new tool, instead of interest, I receive a fair amount of disdain. Mainly, others wonder how I can achieve the state standards when my students are always “playing around”. Like I read on someone’s twitter feed about PBL (and retweeted), it can appear “messy” at times. I have great parent and administrative support, so I practice being grateful for that.

I plan to implement blogging this year with my third graders. I already KNOW there will be negative reactions from people. Of course, I know for this assignment, I’m speaking to a forum of educational technologists, so I’m anticipating positive support from all of you, but for the sake of this discussion, maybe some of you can play “Devil’s Advocate”? This will allow others of us to practice stating our philosophy about blogging in the classroom.

List Entry

I gave quite a bit of thought to this assignment, in particular I was trying to come up with items to list. I felt ready to write out, in detail I might add, the ol’ “Bucket List”, but thought better of it when I realized that my third grade students might not have one, yet. ;) Since I intend to use this blog as a model for their blogging, I decided to tailor this list entry to them. Here is my list for a beginning of the school year blogging assignment.

10 Interesting Things about Me!

by Ms. Tooley

1. I can juggle.
2. I am allergic to cats, but I have one (his name is Kitty).
3. I was the first girl on a boy’s little league team when they first allowed girls.
4. I met my teen idol (when I was an adult).
5. I’m as old as a typical grandmother, but I manage and play on an adult softball team.
6. After a 26 year break, I am back in college (and it’s all online)!
7. I have visited 36 states and 7 countries.
8. I have completed 6 triathlons (swimming, biking and running).
9. I am afraid of heights, but I fly in airplanes.
10. I am a vegetarian (herbivore).

Links Entry

I intend to set up blogging with my students at the beginning of the year. My class is a 1:1 iPad blended classroom.  This post is meant to be a place where my students can learn about blogging by visiting the links below. I have also included some links on digital citizenship topics because that will need to be addressed prior to the students posting online.

  1. http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/cambriatooley/502/netiquette.html

This is a website written for elementary age students that I created in my 502 class. I
included this link because it explains basic digital citizenship concepts that need to be
taught prior to allowing students to publish online.

 2. http://cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf

This interactive tool provides answers to questions related to copyright issues. Students
need to be fluent in copyright laws so they can avoid issues right from the start.

 3. http://kidsblogclub.com/12-different-ways-to-write-a-blog-post/

This website is written for kids to jumpstart their blogs by providing 12 different ideas to
write about. Often times, students get writer's block and need some prompting to write.

 4. http://kidsblogclub.com/52-ideas-for-blog-posts-by-kids/

Similar to the link above, this website provides 52 different ideas for children to blog
about.

 5. http://hooverneb.blogspot.com/2011/03/hawaii.html

Students need to see examples of other students’ work when first starting to blog. This
link shows an example of a summer trip blog. I plan to start my blogging unit with the
students' summer experiences.

 6. http://kidblog.org/SISGrade3-2/8d518933-9ee6-41a5-bd2c-a2c1c7520293/my-favorite-3-activities/

I included this link because it is another example of a kid created blog entry. I especially
like this one because it includes images which I believe will be highly engaging for my
students to include in their own blogs.

 7. http://info.imagineeasy.com/citations-for-beginners-thank-you?submissionGuid=9787b830-5f0d-4524-8fed-0edf352d45b8

I found this link on a classmate's Twitter feed. You may need to sign in, as I did, to
view the video. It's a clear message about how important it is to cite references, even
at an early age.

Edtech 537

Welcome to my Blog! I have created this Blog to practice what I’m learning in Edtech 537 “Blogging in the Classroom”. I believe blogging is a tool and process that even young students can use to further their writing skills, and as a means of collaboration and connection with each other, with their teacher, and with a variety of other audiences. 

Using Kidblog, I plan to integrate blogging into my third grade classroom this year and am excited to explore and learn about it this summer. As of today, I am still struggling to select a theme for my blogging content. I am passionate about technology and already have a student-centered third grade classroom. Perhaps I will focus on that, or be more specific and use it for writing as a tool. We shall see as the days pass… Feel free to click on the “All About Me” page above to learn more about me!