Digital Native/Immigrant is the Wrong Analogy

SOCIAL LEARNING
Those in education or Instructional Technology fields have heard the notion that our students are "digital natives" and the over-40 crowd of teachers are "digital immigrants." I have a slightly different take on this idea. When it comes to technology, I've concluded that our students are "social natives" and "learning immigrants" while teachers are "social immigrants" and "learning natives."

Our student's top priorities in the use of technology is 1)being social and 2)being entertained. Our top priority is learning. It is the marriage of these two priorities that lead to powerful social learning experiences. The power behind web 2.0 tools is the ability to communicate and share with large numbers of people. It is the skilled educator that can get students to take the leap toward using these tools to power their own learning experiences.

Facebook and MySpace are used by students to share pictures, meet girls/boys, leave messages but do those same students know how to use a Ning to develop and share ideas around physics or U.S. History? Students use status updates to share where they are heading on a Friday night but do those students know how to use Twitter to share ideas about an upcoming project? Students use YouTube to be entertained by babies farting baby powder clouds but do students know how to use YouTube to learn, instruct, and share ideas and information that will further their learning? Students use Photobucket to share pictures from the concert they attended but can they create, collect, share meaningful photo essays about important concepts or geographical locations. Students use their cell phones as a text generator but can they use their cell phone to stay organized, collect information, conduct interviews among many other things. Students use their iPod Touch to listen to music and play games but do they use their iPod Touch as a reference tool, organizer, recording device, or photo editor.

It's our job to learn how to use these tools and devices and to teach students to become "social learners," a place where information and connectivity collide.

Cell Phones As Learning Tools (More NECC Day 1 sessions)

Liz Kolb's blog titled From Toy to Tool is an ongoing conversation about using cell phones as learning tools. I caught part of this conversation at my final Monday NECC session. You can find more information about this session from the Cell Phones in Learning wiki that Liz set up for this session. Liz opened with a video clip from NPR's segment Three Generations' View of Cell Phones. This reminds me of my own evolution regarding cell phones. I once had no concept why text messaging was so appealing to our teenagers. Now, I probably use the text feature more than the voice features.
Next came a mention of Wiffiti, which is a tool to have your text messages sent to public places. One way that Liz demonstrated Wiffiti was to pose a question to the class and have all participants text an answer to the screen. This would be useful for brainstorming tasks as everyone's responses would be seen simultaneously.
Liz outlined 4 reasons why we should use cell phones as learning tools.
1. The number of students who have cell phones. I believe over 60% of students 6-12 have their own cell phones. This number is dramatically higher among the 9-12 population. I talked to several teachers in low-income school districts who remarked that their students all had cell phones.
2. The students view of their cell phone. Just try taking away a teenager's cell phone. You will learn pretty quickly how much they value their cell phone.
3. The cell phone is an anytime, anyplace, any pace collaborative learning tool. This also happens to describe how students like to learn.
4. Preparation for 21st century skills. Only 23% of K-12 students believe they are being properly trained in schools for the 21st Century digital job force (from The Speak Up Reports and PEW).
Ok, now it's time to do the Cell Phone Cha Cha! Got a question that needs answered? Can't access the internet? Try the mobile phone Cha Cha service. You can either call 1-800 2 Cha Cha or text 242 242 and then ask any question. In a couple of minutes you will receive a text message response with the answer to your question. I just called Cha Cha for my daughter Zoe. She asked Cha Cha for Ashley Tisdale's phone number. In a few minutes we received her number via a text message. Zoe is very excited!! Give it a try now!
If any of you are familiar with CNN.com's new iReport feature then you might see the power of mobile blogging. Mobile blogging is simply the ability to post text, audio, photos, and video to the an internet blog from a remote location instantanously using your cell phone as the primary tool. There are many tools that allow for this type of reporting...Jott and Gabcast being two of them. Jott allows you to call a number, speak, and have the voice to text translation to occur so the text can be sent to a variety of places that you select. I will be definetly using Jott to send a voice message to my Google Calendar.
Finally, Liz discussed Textmarks. Textmarks is a tool that will allow my students to sign up for text message alerts. I plan to have all my students subscribe to my alerts so I can send them reminders about projects, exams, news, changes in schedules, etc. You can see what this looks like at my classroom website.
Since I plan for all of my students to have blogs this year, I see mobile blogging having lots of potential in the area of psychology. Using remote videos, photographs, and voice to record human behavior can be a very powerful tool. I am excited to see where this can go. Other uses might include the creation of tutorials, brainstorming, and pre-writing exercises. If you have ideas, please comment here!

12 Brain Rules & Making Presentations

This post from Presentation Zen brings together several personal interests of mine: psychology and the brain, teaching, learning, and presenting. First, it brings in information from brain rules by John Medina. This book explores the idea of what would happen if you take brain science and redesign the classroom. Part of the redesign is about how we communicate information to our students. Of course, we lecture to students and we use powerpoint presentations but how effective are our presentations? Medina incudes a nice slide show that emphasizes one of his brain rules regarding the impact of visuals over text. The video at the end of this post addresses the myth of multitasking. Sometimes, we give in to the notion that multitasking is a productive skill and that multitasking is something that younger students can do and older adults cannot. I teach my students every year about selective attention and it's relationship to sensory processing and memory so I understand the myth of multitasking. I understand personally when I see my production decline because of all the distractions of the internet and I see it in my students when they are distracted in the classroom. So, follow some brain rules, throw away your old powerpoint presentations and get the full, undivided attention of your students. And while you are it, turn off your computer and really focus on the task in front of you. After you read and comment on my blog, of course!