"Not all young people are digitally competent, nor are they interested in every aspect of the new media." (Thomas quoted from Livingstone, 2009).
I related to this quote because I found this out in my own teaching. Not only were some of my students not masters of new digital media, but I also had students that were not interested in the new types of media I tried to use, no matter how much fun I thought they would be. Sometimes, it was disheartening that I put effort into using new technology in my class, but the students would rather do the same old things when it came to technology.
Chapter 8
"How students, who are so clearly familiar and apparently adept with Internet tools, are at times so poor at using the Internet academically." (Thomas)
As a Library Media Specialist, this is the hardest concept to get students to grasp when doing research. Students want to type whole questions into Google, but when they can't find appropriate results, they get upset. I do an entire section of my research unit on things like Boolean Operators, the use of quotation marks and parentheses, but they have a hard time adapting these lessons to their own searching. I think technology like Siri on the iPhone has not helped this problem. This is a major responsibility of teachers, teaching appropriate research skills.
Chapter 9
"The importance of believing that one's opinions will be heard is one of the points defining participatory culture." (Thomas, quoted from Jenkins, 2009).
I think this quote rings true, not only online, but also in the classroom. Students will only participate in class, especially discussions, when they think their opinions are heard and taken seriously. It is important to give each student the opportunity to participate in class because participation is a skill that they will need for the rest of their lives.
- The role of schooling takes a definite charge in enhancing digital literacy. First, we must reorient what we think "being literate" means, according to chapter 7. This is necessary because, to summarize the text, students move between worlds both on and offline, and they are finding new ways of accessing, or reading, information, as well as new ways of producing, or writing, information. Another step we as educators must take to enhance digital literacy is implement different frameworks to enhance digital competence. Another responsibility we have is to teach our students how to correctly search for information digitally so they have the best chance of getting the best results.
Your Meme is AWESOME! This is exactly how I feel and what I enjoy doing every opportunity I get.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think there is so much to digital literacy that we assume comes with being a native. Last semester I did a survey monkey for all ninth and 11th grade students that came through the newspaper class, to determine which technology tools they preferred for homework.To my surprise they were as you said not interesting in doing the survey and explained to me that the only technology they wanted to use was what they had to. In our discussion I was able to find out that
they did not like prezi or word perfect. I guess that was a little something.
I totally agree with your statement & quote for chapter 9. Students want to be heard it is kind of their peace of buying in to what ever we are asking them.I get so much more in discussion from my youth team then when I ask them to video chat.
It has been my experience that anytime I assume something when it comes to students, digital media or otherwise, I am completely wrong. When I worked as an instructor for Kaleidoscope, I was constantly surprised when the activities I planned were a success or failure when I was sure that they’d enjoy them. Honestly the only time I could be 100% positive that it was something that everyone would enjoy was when it involved food.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of technology, I think that students aren’t going to be automatically interested in something just because it’s new. If we think of students as technology adopters in regards to the adoption cycle, very few are innovators or early adopters and fall instead under early or late majority adopters. As such, they’ll likely hold back until they can clearly see that the benefits of adopting the technology will outweigh the work it’ll take to do so. New technology can seem overwhelming and I think if they feel it’s going to be an effort to learn, then they’d rather just stick to what they know. Your success kid meme is definitely appropriate then for the moments when everything just sort of clicks.
Jessi,
ReplyDeleteYour job must be very difficult when it comes to teaching students academic ways to use the media when they usually use it for social media or for fun. It's such a hard concept to grasp when they probably don't realize there are multiple ways to use the media that they find so great! And I would have never thought some students wouldn't be interested in some digital media... I guess it's just like anything else in the world- Some will like some won't. Your meme was hilarious! a great successful day for your job, I'm sure! It's important that your students learn these tools and the correct/different ways they can be used!