There is a quote in an article I’m reading for my inquiry project that seemed to fit in quite well with some of the impressive words we learned about in class today, such as sociocultural homeostasis, and institutional isomorphism. Just try saying those five times fast.
The article is entitled The Innovative use of Personal Smart Devices by Students to Support their Learning, by Anne Nortcliffe and Andrew Middleton.
“… the ‘strong’ disruption that results from the advent of ubiquitous, personally owned mobile technologies and how the ‘long-term consequences must be to challenge the authority of the curriculum’ and dominant thinking about the nature of formal learning.”
While I disagree about bring your own device (BYOD) on many levels, including the creation of the haves and have nots, trying to get everything running on multiple platforms, lack of common or shared apps, devices not running at full operation due to battery drain or damage, alright, perhaps I could go on for longer… however, I do believe that the much more affordable portable devices that can readily access the world do create the need to challenge the dominant thinking about formal learning.
If schools are institutions brought to life by those who learn in them, those who work in them, and the community, should not the institution reflect the lives of those souls? When I first typed that sentence I had only included those who work and the community… perhaps my brain associated students with working in the schools, but I felt the need to be more explicit. Marc Prensky creates the image of students as digital natives, in comparison to most teachers as digital immigrants. In reflection of my teaching experience, I think he is for the most part correct.
I like to try and argue otherwise for myself. I had a Commodore 64, and waited 30 minutes for Donald Duck’s Playground to load. I had an Atari, and Intellivision, and argue that Super Mario Brothers 3 is still the best of the Mario games. I have multiple blogs, have created web sites, use facebook, tweet, and get my news from websites as opposed to newspapers. However, I’m still not in league with my students who were born after the internet was available in many homes. I remember how exciting it was when our school was connected to the internet in 1996… but we didn’t know what to do with it. While I may feel a level of comfort, I was not born to it. The disparity is even greater for many of my colleagues.
However, we are strong voices regarding decision making that affects our classrooms. Do we each continue doing our disparate practices? Do we rise as a group and advocate strongly for change? The only certainty I have is that we certainly must not do nothing. We owe our students much more.
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You have hit on a topic dear to my heart. I wonder what will happen when teachers really start to occupy digital spaces with ‘teachers talking about teaching’. At present, public perception of teachers is extremely narrow and negative. It is so unfair! But teachers, in a sense, have passively allowed others to speak on their behalf in public discourse. I agree that Prensky got part of the analysis right, that the cognitive, cultural, and technological dispositions of succeeding generations are informed by the cognitive, cultural, and technological conditions they were born into. However, I don’t think there is a clear ‘digital line in the sand’. I was first introduced to computers in high school when we were taken to a school in West Vancouver that had a computer the size of a volkswagon bug. We were instructed to code cardboard punch cards with pencils and then were amazed when something happened in the machine. The experience was a little awe inspiring and largely meaningless. Later, in 1988, I was introduced to word processing as I was struggling to write a manuscript on a portable typewriter. That was my ‘aha’ moment and I have never looked back. The fact is that for every individual human being on this planet, there is a unique technological history, including a complex relationship with digital technologies. As educators, we have a responsibility to provide leadership in the ethical, social, and educational uses of digital technologies. No one else is going to do it, and we, as a species with an essential drive for connectivity, need it.