Wednesday, October 14, 2009

We must prepare children for their future, not our past.

IAN JUKES, LIVING ON THE FUTURE EDGE:
  • “Prepare children for their future, not our past...” Ian Jukes, a futurist, author, and provocateur spoke in Vancouver to educators.
  • He believes we, as teachers, must gain a new mindset. We must prepare children for their future, not our past. We need to re-think why kids should come to school.
  • His words are powerful to me. I need to view technological changes in education and rethink my role as a teacher. Technology is not a curriculum, but a tool used to perform tasks. Content is the process of learning, not the product of learning.
  • My role is to teach problem solving, critical thinking, and communication.
  • The most powerful technology in the classroom is the teacher. I teach children!
Kay Douglass, Teacher.Librarian, Chinook Elementary

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Digital Definitions - merriam-webster.com

Merriam-Webster.com welcomes suggestions for new words not yet in their dictionary. Our fifth graders are asking for Digital.Native, Digital.Immigrant, Digital.Tourist, and Digital.Dinosaur to be included. Perhaps I will add Digital.Grandma to the list.

#2 Blog from Digital Immigrant Rewired

Friday, October 2, 2009
Wish I Could Change Blog to Digital Grandma
At Chinese tonight with friends, I marvelled at the gist of the conversation. All four of us clearly not Digital natives, actually probably not Digital immigrants. Yet, conversation centered on the digital world. One guy had an I-Phone he continually used as an information source. Did you know there are actually four new Lincoln pennies? Two are out and two more planned. One gal is Japanese from Hawaii. I ate the entire meal with chopsticks after she taught me how. Tim wanted to show me a funny clip about a librarian, Lo said to download it to her phone and she would show it to me later. Duane and Tim had difficulty hearing despite high tech hearing aids in place. When will the digital world catch up and make an efficient hearing aid? Like those articificial legs and arms they make these days. To this elderly digital generation, these are important questions. My new blog will be called Digital Grandma. I just don't know how to change the name on this one to say that. So much for being Digital Immigrant Rewired.
Posted by Kay Douglass at 8:16 PM 1 comments

First Blog from D.Natives Teaching D.Natives

Saturday, September 26, 2009
Digital Natives Teaching Digital Natives
Digital Natives actually have different pathways in their brains that are used to problem solve than other human beings. MRI's have been used to demonstrate this. So I completely understand that a D.Native Teacher teaching Digital Natives to problem solve works very well. How about a Digital Immigrant teaching a Digital Native to problem solve? Unless the immigrant has re-wired, doesn't this make a disconnect? Is that why D.Natives can text using thumbs and D.Immigrants just don't seem to make the same exercise easy? Or the reverse. D.Immigrants think they can teach their D.Native students to keyboard with both hands on the keyboard using the "correct fingering", when in fact those D.Natives have had alternative keyboard fingering imprinted in their brains from birth on. Think remotes, cell phones. Expanded, this is becoming a problem in most instruction given to D.Natives by D.Immigrants, D. Tourists, and D.Dinosaurs.
Posted by Kay Douglass at 4:16 PM 1 comments