Teaching in the Digital Age

Teaching in the Digital Age is exciting.  Finding new ways to teach, connect, and help students grow is a challenge we, as educators, are starting to realize.  Collaborating and networking are becoming essential skills for educators.

In the article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” by Marc Prensky, I learned that I am a digital immigrant.  I did not grow up immersed in technology.  I do think, as an immigrant, I have been adapting pretty well.  Immigrants are pretty accepting of new technology.  Preparing students for the future takes more than just accepting and using technology.  Educators who are immigrants can’t just focus on using technology themselves; they need learn to use it in a way to connect with digital natives and teach them. 

The video, “A Vision of Students Today”, shows us how great the divide is between digital natives and digital immigrants.  Our students need us to present information in a different format.  That format is still not completely clear, but I think we are heading in the right direction.  When we do find things that are successful we cannot just keep it in our classroom.  We need to share it the same way the digital natives share their information. 

Having a personal learning network is powerful.  This is a group of educators to learn from and share what we learn with.  Networking and collaborating with a group of educators can be a way of encouraging each other.  The divide between immigrants and natives is too large to conquer on our own.  We need to work together.

“A Day in the Life of Web 2.0” by David Warlick shows us how much technology could be used by educators in a single day.  Wow!  I can’t imagine being that connected.  This would not be an overnight change.  Adding on one new thing each month, quarter, or semester would be enough.  Trying to do it all is too overwhelming.  While reading the article, I thought about how each technology mentioned would really help students.  This is definitely showing us what educators may be doing in the very near future.

I have a long way to go in doing an adequate job of educating digital natives for their future.  I think I am still stuck on educating students for their present and possibly, at times, for their past.  I’m not going to give-up; I’ll turn to fellow educators and learn from them, and share with them.