Digital Immigrants Living in a Digital Native World

Those of us who are digital immigrants, who did not grow up in the age of computers, iPods, and video games, feel as if we are living in a foreign culture when surrounded by the digital natives and all of the technology with which they were raised. In a very real sense, we ARE living in a foreign culture. The digital natives think differently than the digital immigrants. Their minds are moving faster and they become bored more quickly. Digital immigrants need to think like digital natives. Technology in school back in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, or even the early 90s looked much different than it does today. When I was in school in the 1960s and 70s, technology was a reel-to-reel film being shown in class. Or we had the filmstrip that was accompanied by a record that played music and narrated the filmstrip. Overhead projectors were my day's equivalent of a SMART board. Teachers also used slide projectors, and then there was the chalkboard. Most of these technologies have gone the way of the ink wells and as teachers, we must adapt. Teachers today need to use SMART boards in order to teach interactively, to insert videos or create learning games. Computers can be used to allow students to play education games in order to learn. All of the technology that is being used by students today can be integrated into learning. Asking students for their help with technology will not show immigrant teachers to be unknowledgeable, but will provide a collaborative environment where the students can help solve problems and feel good about bringing their expertise into the classroom.  As immigrants, we just have to figure out how to make it work.  It will not be easy for us and it will take time and creativity, but it is possible to bring the teaching profession into the 21st century.

21st Century Skills for 21st Century Teachers

The world is changing so quickly that it sometimes seems difficult to keep up with those changes.  It is imperative that teachers in this 21st century be able to adapt to change, otherwise we will never be able to keep up with our students.  We also need to demonstrate innovative thinking and be good problem solvers.  When we talk about "21st Century Skills," we are talking about the skills that are needed in order to survive and thrive in a world that has become increasingly creative and technology-driven.  We are interacting globally in the 21st Century, not locally as in prior generations. As teachers it is important that we learn these skills so that we may enter the world of the children we teach.  Children use technology on a daily basis; they find it fun.  They are digital learners and we must be technology-trained teachers.  To reach students today, we must make learning fun and we can do that through technology by using a Smartboard, podcasts, blogs, smartphones, iPods as well as other mediums.  As teachers we must meet students where they are and that place today is technology.

1.  What is WIKI?

2.  What is meant when a teacher is "hiding behind a blog?"  

3.  Is is necessarily a bad thing if students are more technically-saavy than their teacher?