Hola amigos!
My last post brought up the issue of being digitally fluent but now my thoughts drift to whether I'm a digital native, digital immigrant (Prensky) or something else?
According to the article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", a digital native is a native speaker of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet whereas a digital immigrant is someone who was not born into the digital world but has, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology.
The importance of the distinction is this: As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot in the past. The "digital immigrant accent" can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it. Today’s older folk were "socialized" differently from their kids, and are now in the process of learning a new language. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain.
My last post brought up the issue of being digitally fluent but now my thoughts drift to whether I'm a digital native, digital immigrant (Prensky) or something else?
According to the article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", a digital native is a native speaker of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet whereas a digital immigrant is someone who was not born into the digital world but has, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology.
The importance of the distinction is this: As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot in the past. The "digital immigrant accent" can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it. Today’s older folk were "socialized" differently from their kids, and are now in the process of learning a new language. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain.
There are hundreds of examples of the digital immigrant accent. They include printing out your email (or having your secretary print it out for you – an even "thicker" accent); needing to print out a document written on the computer in order to edit it (rather than just editing on the screen); and bringing people physically into your office to see an interesting web site (rather than just sending them the URL). I’m sure you can think of one or two examples of your own without much effort. My own favorite example is the "Did you get my email?" phone call. Those of us who are Digital Immigrants can, and should, laugh at ourselves and our "accent."
Very interesting perspective but fairly extreme for my liking as I tend to fall in between the two descriptions. I may not have been born into a digital world but I also don't have any of the above mentioned immigrant accents either - perhaps I'm "digiterate" (think 'sniglets' from Wetware: why use activity structures?) or have a very slight accent. I think I prefer to coin myself a new term, the Digital Surfer or Survivalist, ie. someone who may not necessarily be fascinated by or adopted the new technology but who has kept up-to-date with it by literally riding a 'wave of information' cause he/she knows they need to in order to survive in today's world! (And they ride round on a silver surfboard heralding the arrival of Galactus just before your planet gets consumed!...)
I love this quote by Douglas Adams which was brought to my attention by someone's post on the discussion forum:
Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
Thankfully, I've just past the 35 landmark so maybe that's why I don't feel like a digital immigrant!
Michael
References
1. Harris, J 1998, Wetware: why use activity structures?
2. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
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Activity 4.1
Hey all
It really is an eye-opener to read everyone's different backgrounds and how ICT has changed education around the world. Some of the stuff happening elsewhere is amazing and makes me positively jealous!
I've been teaching for almost a decade now and I'm certainly feeling it, my age that is! Thinking about all the changes in the last 10 years is not that easy for me as I have a hazy memory at best, but I'll try my best to pinpoint some of the major changes that have occurred in my educational context (TEFL).
When I began teaching, it was just a blackboard (whiteboard if you were lucky), tape recorder and VCR. Nowadays, it’s all pretty much a whiteboard (interactive whiteboard if you’re lucky), all previously mentioned as well as a CD player, DVD player (sometimes combined with a VCR) and computer with LCD projector.
Although we have a wealth of equipment, I don’t really think educators in the TEFL field have fully exploited the potential of ICT. “Teachers need to restructure their presentations and delivery, not simply add technology to their current approach. If they restructure their teaching in a way that incorporates technology as a central tool for enhancing pedagogy, real changes can occur.” Instead “technologies are used simply to reinforce outmoded approaches to learning” and "approaches to teaching and learning remain largely unchanged." CDs replace cassettes, DVD players replace VCRs, etc. but the pedagogy remains the same.
Of course, we have the occasional ICT-themed lessons but all that means is taking students into a classroom laboratory and going through skill, drill and practice programs or a web-based lesson. That's not to say there's no innovative & creative stuff happening in the world of TEFL. I've seen some real creative young learners' writing projects involving PowerPoint and specialised software but it's just rare!
In my experience, most “staff is willing to integrate technology into the program only when they see how it can help them” to improve students’ English “and improve student performance, but they are quite reluctant to use technology for technology’s sake.” Unfortunately, “change doesn’t happen in a school simply because you install new equipment” and “teachers have seen bandwagons come and go” and “are appropriately skeptical about untested, expensive changes that seem peripheral rather than central to their purpose. They want to know how this venture will improve student performance.” Professional development and planning resources is crucial but “the focus has been squarely on the equipment.”
Michael
References
1. Constable, P 2003, ‘For the long term’
2. Mckenzie, J 2000, ‘Making good change happen’
3. Resnick, M 2002, ‘Rethinking learning in the digital age’
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Activity 4.2 - 4.3
Hi all
To be honest, the internet hasn’t changed teaching and learning in my classroom as much as I would have hoped. It’s definitely more a tool for me than for my students.
Referring to the mind-reading article, “Wetware: why use activity structures?”, it lists pretty much what I do with the internet in the opening paragraph:
- information searching
- online publishing
- using electronic mail
- using discussion forums
- realtime chatting
- audio/video conferencing
Reading other people’s posts - it is true that the internet has helped with and speeded up lesson planning with the world’s information at your fingertips but it can also slow it down and it invariably has with me. For example, the number of times I’ve tried to search for a decent activity to practice the ‘Past Perfect’ and just find countless, boring grammar exercises when I could have just consulted a photocopiable resource book which has exactly what I want…
In the good old days, I used to collect in homework assignments. Now with the advent of the internet and email, students email it to me and it can be corrected using “track changes” in Word or printed out and marked the old fashioned way.
Sometimes, when I take a class into the Multimedia Centre to do a web-based activity, I feel a bit guilty about this because most of them have already spent their whole day sitting in front of a computer at work and here they are again (déjà vu)!
Once upon a time (about 5 years ago), I was involved in a short-lived “Online English” programme. Basically, it was exactly the same as a regular course except everything (grammar, reading, listening, writing, vocabulary, etc.) was done online, except for the speaking part when students would come in at pre-arranged times for their speaking practice. I guess at that time, video-conferencing wasn’t quite ready then. The aim of these courses was to allow students flexibility in terms of when they wanted to study as HK adult students are notoriously known for not being able to attend classes because they are far too busy with work and overtime. (In a 2002 survey, it was found that the average working week in HK was 55 hours and 75% of people work late into the evenings – I can certainly vouch for that!) A regular course meant attending classes regularly at a fixed time for about 30 hours over a period of 2-3 months. An online course meant doing the same thing but doing it when it suited students. Of course, there were deadlines, etc. but these were relatively flexible. As a coordinator for some of these courses, I was responsible for initiating discussions in the course material, marking assignments, teaching the face-to-face sessions, etc. I actually thought it was a great idea but these courses were eventually dropped due to poor enrolment. I guess that students were far too busy to enrol for these flexible courses!
Having been exposed to blogs and wikis on this course, I would like to begin to use these tools in my teaching for collaborative writing projects, dialogue journals, discussions, brainstorming, listening (audioblogs), etc.
At the university, we also have a Moodle platform and in the past I have tried to look into the possibility of using this but unfortunately it is restricted to full-time students only. The students I mainly teach are part-time students so this is a major stumbling block.
I would also be interested in learning more about ‘activity structures’ – it sounds ideal!
Michael
References
1. Harris, J 1998, Wetware: why use activity structures?
2. Richardson, W 2004 Blogging and RSS — The "What's it?" and "How to" of powerful new web tools for educators
3. Work Life Balance in Hong Kong - http://www.communitybusiness.org.hk/documents/WLB%20full%20report.pdf
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Activity 4.4
Hi all
Looks like I'm not alone in this boat of 'no documentation' that refer to the integration or support of ICT even though we have a fantastic IT department which is responsible for the following:
- provision of telephone, television, video and data networking services throughout the university
- provision of basic information technology training and user consultation services
- provision of teaching support and multimedia services
- provision of hardware and software installation and maintenance services for PC's and related equipment
- provision of computer operation services for all the main and distributed machine rooms across the campuses
I’ve mentioned before the small (fish) department I work in and now I’ll tell you why I keep saying that. We only have 3 full-time academic staff (including me) and 2 admin staff and I’m pretty much responsible for anything IT/ICT related!
Other (bigger) departments probably have policies or guidelines regarding ICT integration but I have no way of accessing that information.
Michael
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