Video Response - "Digital Media:  New Learners of the 21st Century"

This video (which can be found at:  http://www.pbs.org/programs/digital-media/) was dense with important concepts and stimulating ideas.  After watching the video, I spent some time reviewing the pbs.org website associated with this video as well and read comments that were posted and quotes re-iterated from the video participants.  I particularly related to the idea Christopher Lehman shared, ". . . We can stop being driven by fear.  We can start to understand that this is the world kids live in . . ."

I have not overcome my own fears of exposure and lack of privacy.  My interaction with Facebook so far has been to have access to my family member's photos (extended cousins and such) rather than to share my own life on the web.  I have very rarely shared my "feelings" or updated my "status" on Facebook and I have managed to avoid "Twittering" altogether.  In contrast, I see my younger brother (only 6 years younger mind you) live on his iPhone, Facebook, and other digital social networks.  He has sold his business products on Living Social and Amazon and the like.  His entire world is online and to disconnect him from those avenues would be the equivalent of "grounding me in my room without my landline phone" when I was little.  I would have been cut off from “my world.”  Today's world for young people is the digital world. 

Students are even more connected than my younger brother even.  The only world they have known has included the internet, cell phones, digital cameras, and now the world of Twitter and Groupon.  Email is even too slow for them now.   I heard it said that the youth only use email to connect to older people; to connect to their peers it is strictly via text messages and following each other on Twitter, and Facebook postings. 

So as teachers, we have to catch up and use this new world in our classrooms!  Not only to utilize the resources relatable to our students, but to help them learn how to utilize these available resources to learn and grow, not just socialize.  We have to show them how the material they need to learn is relevant to their lives and the only way to do that is to put that material into practice by using what they already use on a regular basis – technology. 

The comment mentioned in the video that the technology that will be available to them when they are our age hasn’t even been created yet.  So as a teacher, how do we best serve our students for a world we can't imagine?  We have to teach them the skillsets and strategies that transcend such things:  problem-solving, critical thinking, thinking outside the box, and so forth. 

We have to allow for the students to be the "creators" of knowledge because that is what is expected of them in the future.  The classroom has to transcend the traditional old-fashioned models of yesterday and start modeling the new digital world in which we are currently living.  By incorporating these new concepts and adjusting our teaching strategies we can still teach "the basics" as discussed in this video, but instead the basics are incorporated in new ways.  One example expressed was instead of a written research paper, the written assignments can become digital storyboard scripts, and the reading becomes part of the research in order to complete the digital project (such as reading the classic stories in order to create online graphic novels).  Math becomes “code writing” and social studies and history content is achieved via community based projects which incorporate GPS  software, smartphones, videos, and podcasts. 

The ideas expressed share a new level of education required for our students.  The incorporation of technology takes education to a new level, one that lends itself to better student adaptability, and stronger skill sets for the students.  Not to mention, it makes learning more fun!  If we don't make these changes as teachers to incorporate these resources into the everyday classroom environment  we will lose the opportunity to truly reach our students and teach them the skills they will need to succeed in their new world.  We will be doing them a great disservice!  We must adapt so that they can thrive!