Whight’s view on technology, maths and education.

After reading Taniak’s piece on inappropriateness of the Carbon Dating of Digital Immigrants I felt it was necessary to add my two cents on the digital divide.

For a teacher, I believe there are more important divisions other than age. For example great divides exist within the current generation of “digital natives”.

It seems inappropriate to classify someone as a digital native purely on their age. I personally know 18yr olds have as much ability as a monkey when it comes to utilising technology. Is this person a digital native? Surely Taniak is more of a native than this person?

Original Photography:  ‘Computer Monkeys‘

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I believe to us as future teachers, motivating and engaging such students like this 18yr old will be one of the greatest challenges when implementing technology in a classroom.

Additionally, this gap in knowledge may be increased as many such students may be unwilling to ask for assistance due to the stigma attached to a lack of ability with technology. (McFarlane, 2008)

McFarlane, S. (2008). The Laptops Are Coming! The Laptops Are Coming!. Rethinking Schools Online. 22(4). Retrieved September 25, 2008 from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_04/lapt224.shtml

A teenager chatting on her cell phone, using a Mac and completing her homework all at the same time is an image presented by Wallace. I question how anybody can possibly successfully do this. However then again, I come from a non-multi-tasking generation and as Prensky points out, I, as a digital immigrant, fail to comprehend how the teenagers from today can successfully learn whilst multitasking as I myself can’t. However researchers mentioned in Wallace point out that the quality of output deteriorates as one attends to more tasks. But then again, I assume these researchers are digital immigrants.

Wallace points out some multitasking situations that have been utilised for generations. This highlights that I do multitask but just not in the same manner as teenagers from the digital generation. For example, I have driven and listened to music for years. The difference is that teenagers are now multiprocessing, not just multitasking.

Disregarding my views, if a student can multitask in such a way as suggested, perhaps we, as educators, can tap into this and develop interlocking tasks for a classroom that can be completed simultaneously. But the question remains, if students can complete two tasks at once by dividing their attention, will they save time allowing for deeper investigation of a topic? Or would two tasks that would take 1 hour each to complete individually, take 2 or more hours to complete when done simultaneously? According to research presented in Wallace, when multitasking, errors go up and it takes far longer to complete tasks when compared to doing them individually.

Another view, and one I am more inclined to believe, is presented by Rainie. Perhaps teenagers aren’t so much as doing two things at once; rather they scan several pieces of technology at once and attend to where the action is happening. This is further backed up by research mentioned by Wallace. Rather than truly multiprocessing as previously mentioned, teenagers are actually rapidly switching between different tasks. Also of note is that a human’s ability to do this appears to diminish with age.

The final point is although multitasking appears to diminish performance, research presented in Wallace suggests that a little stimulation, such as music can improve performance. So perhaps an IPOD in the ear in a classroom isn’t something to be frowned upon.

Multitasking:

Original Photography: ‘Wired man’

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Split Attention

Original Photography: ‘attention’
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Reference:

Wallis, C. (2006, April). The Multitasking generation. Time. 46-54.

The concept of blind devotion concerns me as an educator.

Original Photography: ‘Public Domain: Hitler at Reichstag (NARA)’

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A student on a video by The MacArthur Foundation questioned why there was a need for books anymore. Why was this so? It was believed that all books are on the net so all the information you could possibly need is on the net.

Rainie points out that for students the first step for an assignment is to browse the internet and then if they have queries to ask they go on a social networking site for advice.

What concerns me about this is the free access users have to the internet and the fact that information on sites can be from dubious sources to say the least. Students appear to believe whatever is put before them on the internet, perhaps because it represents technology? My other concern is that not all resources are available on the internet and as such students are limiting their experiences in education.

But the question remains, how can we remove these blindfolds so that our students perspectives can be expanded and enable our students to question the authenticity of what they find on the internet? Would our interference in this area be seen as an action to attempt to minimise their use of such technology?

It appears that the digital generation are indifferent to the consequences of impinging on copyrights. Rainie states that 55% of teenagers do not actually care if what they are downloading is copyrighted or not. Hence the title, a line similar to one used in an advertisement which aims to reduce video piracy in Australia. This advertisement attempts to educate teenagers that downloading a movie online is equivalent to stealing a handbag. They are both stealing.

Perhaps if we are to utilise technology in the classroom we first need to educate the correct and legal use of such technology. As Rainie points out, there is a need for us to model correct practices, when available, to educate the reasons behind copyright. We need to do this before students suffer severe consequence from the law.

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