Digital immigrations

Jason Barnes

Wow! Just creating this page and trying to make this post has been a stiff cold slap in the chops for me! I am most certainly a digital immigrant with only one foot in the water! I can remember being in high school and experiencing my first introduction to the World Wide Web. My parents missed the technology train and so my family didn’t and still doesn’t have a computer. While I have had to become more progressive there are still many things that totally overwhelm my abilities. As a teacher with students of the digital native population, I can very much feel their advanced skill with technology. Their lives are composed of a digital web of communication and activity for the better part of 24 hours a pop. This bombardment creates a knowledge hungry monster with an attention span as long as your pinkie finger. It is clear that the mold of education I was created in no longer can contain or support the students of today. As educators we must overcome the hazards and strife of immigration and master the languages of the natives we educate. I believe the only way is to make a habit of seeking out self educating experiences until a functional/beneficial level of fluency is reached.

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Comment by Lisa Denney on March 25, 2013 at 5:33am: Jason, I agree with what you said about them being "knowledge hungry monsters". I find that the attention span of my students gets shorter each year. We take more brain breaks and get up and move much more often. I also find that their writing has horribly suffered. I don't have access to a laptop for every student every time we write, but when I do I get much more from them. When they are expected to hand write, it's a struggle. However, the grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure in their writing (whether on computer or hand written) is terrible. I teach fourth grade and I can't tell you how many times I see cuz instead of because, and omg, and u instead of you. I often feel like I've just read a text from a friend instead of piece of writing for grading.