Natives vs Immigrants to Technology

I have never thought of classifying a person as a "digital native" or a "digital immigrant."  There is definitely a digital divide between the generations growing up without computers than those growing with the technology.  Nowadays, everywhere you turn there is a flashing screen or a computer.  You can't seem to survive in this century without the knowledge of some basic computer skills.  In the YouTube Video, Do Digital Natives Exist it mentions the question of “Is there a danger in assuming that they don’t need to be taught how to computer?”  

As a digital native myself, I find it frustrating that people expect me know everything there is to know about a computer.  The digital immigrants (my grandmother for example) assume that I know exactly how to use every program there is and how to fix any glitch on a computer.  There is so much information about the every adapting technology that it is hard to keep up.  I have learned a lot about how to keep up with technology through my graduate program and have been given resources that allow me to hear about the latest technologies.  There are so many resources available on how to use the latest technologies that I am feeling more confident in my abilities to use them.  However, not everyone that I work with is so easily adaptable with the technology as I am.  In Sree Sreenivasan's TedTalk, he mentions that “Digital natives are fearless, they embrace technology and love technology.” 

I do not agree with this statement completely.  It creates this stereotype that everyone who grew up in the digital age is willing to use and "love" technology.  Many of the people I went to high school with aren't as willing to use technology.  They prefer to work with their hands and do things in a tactile way.  One of my friends growing up didn't have a cell phone until he was a senior in college.  He felt that he didn't want to fall into the "trap" that sucks everyone in and being connected all the time.  I feel that information about the use of technology needs to be shared.  Teachers need to learn how to use the technology and integrate it into their classes.  

Hey Onion! You’re Makin’ Me Cry!

Every day, dozens of stories are broadcast on the radio, and they have the potential to offer our students that same rich experience, helping them connect to the content in ways written text can’t reach them. Now, you can with podcasts.   

Wow in the World is an educational podcast created by two really cool people, Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas.  Guy Raz is a host, co-creator, and editorial director of three NPR programs, including TED Radio Hour and How I Built This.  Mindy Thomas has worked for 16 years on SiriusXM’s Kid’s Place Live Channel where she hosts the Absolutely Mindy Show and where she served as Program Director for ten years.  Together they knew there was a need for smart, creative, curiosity-inspiring podcasts that kids and grownups could listen to together. 


The podcast episode I listened to was Hey Onion! You're Makin Me Cry! It was so much fun to listen to.  I actually wanted to learn about onion plants and why they make us cry. It was a very silly and very informative.  I can see using this podcast for many science lessons.  They have different episodes that cover the planets, recycling, medicine.  These two really have a way of making very complex situations and explaining them in words children can understand.  

Flipping for Ted Ed

You can use TED-Ed's videos and lessons to supplement almost any subject.  Their videos and lessons are engaging and can take even sometimes-boring subjects and transform them into wildly interesting content.


The lesson I created on TED-Ed was on what happens to a plastic bottle after it is thrown away.  My main objective for this lesson is for students to the importance of recycling and protecting our planet. The two common core standards addressed in my lesson are CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.6: Analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text. and  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

I can see showing my flipped lesson to learn about protecting the environment, pollution, or celebrating Earth Day.  I can also see myself showing this video during a social studies lesson that teaches students what it means to be a good citizen. 

Catch you on the flip side

"Aren't you supposed to be doing your homework and not watching videos?"

"But mom, this IS homework!"

This is a conversation I have with my mother at least once a week.  Homework isn't all about worksheets or readings in the text book anymore.  The flipped classroom is changing the game of education.  

With a flipped classroom, teachers are able to provide instruction while students are at home and work on homework during school hours.  In the article Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer it states "learners gain control over their learning. Learners have the power of the pause button to control the videos. Learners who get lost in class as the teacher explains more quickly than they can process can now stop the video and review. They can use the Internet to research issues the video may have raised."

Since the students are learning the main instruction outside of the class, they are able to have more time with the teacher to clarify confusing topics.  

In the article Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom, the author mentions that "Flipped classroom adopters state that the approach is not about the videos, but about the best use of class time."   Since the students already received instruction through the flipped video, students come to class ready to contribute and collaborate.  This gives the teacher to implement more in-depth projects and debates.  The teacher can also assign work that would usually be for homework.  This way he/she can see the students at the moment frustration or confusion appears.  Students receive immediate feedback and  

"Dude get off Twitter the teacher is coming"

A teacher that allows student to use Twitter in class? Best day ever! Although Twitter might be the latest social media "fad" it has many ingenious ways to be integrated into the classroom.  

 The National Education Association  gave some examples how Twitter is being integrated into the classroom.  Some teachers use it to review lessons and remind students what is going to be covered in class that day or the next. In the article, Christopher Bergeron states: "Twitter is like the ticker at the bottom of CNN -- only a ticker populated with information about those people or things you care about, want to learn from, or want to know about.”

Amanda Wynter writes about one English class utilization of Twitter in her article 

Bringing Twitter to the Classroom.  Twitter provided the classroom with the social and communicative platform that the previous curriculum failed to foster.  Once the students were familiar with the "dos and don'ts" of Twitter, they were multiple times a day, even after school has ended.  This provided a sense of an ongoing conversation about one theme in a book or a current event.  The students seemed to be reading more closely and the shy kid in class was being retweeted and favorited by teachers from around the world.  

So Teachers, please look past all of the selfies, memes and the other nonsense and see the potential of using social media in the classroom.  It makes learning more fun, interesting, and caters to many 21st Century skills the students may need for their future career endeavors.  

#games4ed

I have never really been into Twitter or using hashtags.  But that was before I ever heard of a Twitter Chat.  A chat on Twitter is people with similar interested coming together to discuss a certain topic using a #hashtag.  Finding a chat I wanted to participate in, that also fit my crazy schedule, was the biggest challenge.  Then I came across this website called Education Chats.  It maps out all of the hashtags for the Twitter chats and in what time frame they are.  The website also could add the chat you desire to participate in to your google calendar.  It will also send you a notification when the chat is about to start.
The chat that I participated in was #games4ed.  I appreciated how organized a Twitter chat is.  #games4ed was a chat specifically designed for teachers from around the world to discuss how to implement different games into their lessons.  Our chat was based on games with mysteries.  The chat leader posted the image below to guide our discussion with open ended questions.  

I read about so many great ideas on how to make my lessons more interesting.  Students learn best when they are having fun.  Gaming is a great way to facilitate that learning and put their skills to the test.  I thoroughly enjoyed participating in a Twitter chat and I will definitely be researching new hashtags to take part in them more!

Living in a bubble?

I grew up in a very sheltered small town in the Hamptons where nothing really bad ever happened.  I always called it my "Sag Harbor Bubble."  Children still walk to school and around town with out supervision and everyone feels safe in the bubble.  When I left for college, I realized how sheltered my town really was.  There were no homeless people on the street, gang violence, or really any armed robberies.  There wasn't anything in the newspaper about excessive drug use or thieves breaking into peoples cars.  Everyone in my town knows everything about one another, which can get quite annoying, but we all look out for each other.  

After listening to the TedTalk from Eli Pariser, I realized that not only places like Sag Harbor are in there own bubble.  The Internet is doing the same exact thing.  This "Filter bubble" monitors what we view on the Internet and only shows things that are relevant to our interest.  I noticed that ever time I search for something on Google, I would see an add for it on Facebook within the hour. With Pinterest, I noticed that once I open one pin about a science experiments, I will see dozens pop up on my timeline just like it.

Now Facebook isn't taking responsibility for the filter bubble or echo chambers.  In the article written by Mariella Moon, Facebook is claiming that "It's not our fault! You do it too!" But how are we filtering our results? I have never once been asked if I wanted to filter my results or news feed by relevance,  interests, importance, etc.

If the algorithmic gatekeepers are going to filter our results, at least have the viewer decide how it is filtered.  Sometimes we need to read news that makes us feel uncomfortable, but it is still relevant to our society and is important.  By reading other people's opinions about a situation, people are able to form their own view points.  But when something is filtered, then all we get is the same view point over and over with nothing else to compare it to.