Task 3 -- Group THREE - 2011 CEI course

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Date Posted: 16:47:40 03/10/11 Thu
Author: Caroline
Subject: Task 3

Task 3 – Group 3
Caroline de Souza Amaral Duarte
Luciana Maia Menezes
Luciano Valadares
Maurício Horto

Write a position paper about the digital generation of students and the challenges we face in teaching them.

The Digital Native concept is very interesting: people who are native in the digital language. In the articles that broaches about this subject, these people can also be called Millennials, Generation Yers or Generation Y. They are generally born from 1987 on (but it’s not a rule). The Digital Immigrants, on the other hand, are the ones who are still trying to arrive at this land of digital technology.

The Digital Natives spend 12.2 hours online every week, according to Forest Research (2006). Some other features of them are to send instant messages (instead of calling), read blogs, use social networking sites like MySpace, do something instead of knowing it better (the ability of getting things done is more valued than the accumulation of knowledge), multitask (do many things at the same time), etc. A video on Youtube, called Grown up digital.mov expresses in a good way the Net Generation characteristics: freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation. Talking with our family and colleagues about this new kind of concept, we asked one of them if he had this ability to multitask (the people we know that grown up playing video games and using the computer a lot). He said that he can work and listen to music at the same time. We were impressed, because we are the kind of people that have to focus on each task at a time.

When it comes to studying, this type of students can listen to music, use the cell phone and pay attention to the teacher at the same time. We, teachers, that are most of the times Digital Immigrants, can’t understand that, but these students are really paying attention to us. Digital Natives prefer to receive information very rapidly, as Tracy L. Gibson says. They are multiprocessing information while using email, instant messaging, and using the phone (or listening to music). The brain of a student of this generation works differently, since he has different kinds of experiences; therefore, the learning path is also different. According to Marc Prensky (2001), “They are used to the instantaneity of hypertext, downloaded music, phones in their pockets, a library in their laptops, beamed messages, and instant messaging.” (p.3) The author goes on saying that “They have little patience for lectures, step-by-step logic, and ‘tell-test’ instruction.”

We, from group 3, agree that there is certainly this new kind of people and that this new generation is sometimes totally different from us (Digital Immigrants). We think that every teacher should notice this difference and struggle in order to reach students in a better way. But we cannot do this simply as an obligation, as the video Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants: Implications for the Classroom on Youtube says. We have to do this (try to use different approaches) because we are aware of the fact that it will be much better for our students and will motivate them much more.

As stated in Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, by Marc Prensky (2001), teachers need to reconsider their methodology and their content. When Marc Prensky talks about changing the methodology, he means “going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access, among other things.” (p. 4) These are indeed some challenges for us, teachers, who are used to explain everything in a logical way, step-by-step, since we think the students will only understand in this manner. Actually, students understand things better with a random access because they face it on the Internet all the time. The content change, by its turn, refers to the contents that are taught. In his opinion, Marc Prensky thinks that we have to teach the “Legacy” content and the “Future” content. The former includes “normal” contents, like reading, writing, etc; the latter includes software, hardware, robotics, genomics, ethics, politics, sociology, languages, etc. All of these points constitutes defiances, considering that teachers tend to think that the less information we give at a time, the more students will “assimilate” the contents.

In the article Simple Changes in Current Practices May Save Our Schools, also by Marc Prensky, five challenges are described by which teachers can improve their classes in this new digital era. Marc Prensky says that they are “doable directions”; that is, they are challenges but are possible to do inside of the classroom. They are…

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