Worst Fears and Best Hopes Blog # 8

Digital Natives

I was enlightened by several ideas as I read chapter three in Alan November’s book. I especially liked the idea of using an anonymous distant reviewer. This idea seemed to work well for the teacher from Britain when she collaborated with a teacher from Japan for insight about her student’s Haiku writing.

I have been striving to improve my technology skills so I will be able to meet the challenge of the “digital natives” that I teach. Chapter three made me realize that I have many challenges facing me because I am a true “digital immigrant” which causes me to have several fears.

Worst Fears

Shifting Control: I have always taught with a very structured classroom and maintained high expectations for my students. Shifting control to the students makes me afraid because many students may not stay motivated and expectations may be lowered.

Reverse Mentoring: Allowing students to take control and teach the “teacher” without the teacher losing credibility is very challenging.

Parent Collaboration: Many parents have the “what can I do?” attitude when a teacher discusses their child. Many parents also do not have technology access or knowledge which makes parent/teacher collaboration difficult.

Teacher Technology Skills: The lack of technology skills or technology knowledge of emerging technology can be very overwhelming.

Best Hopes

Shifting Control: I have begun to shift control with a small group of students in a gifted and talented class. These children are being allowed to have less structured lessons, encouraged to think critically, and allowed to design some of their own independent projects. My best hope is that this method will continue to encourage these students to take control of their future learning and set high expectations for their educational experiences.

Reverse Mentoring: Alan November had a wonderful example when he mentioned the reluctant student and how she had excelled with the handicapped project. Sometimes it is easy to be a reluctant learner even as a teacher. My best hope is that I will be able to learn from my students without feeling inadequate. Striving to be a lifelong learner will help with these feelings.

Parent Collaboration: Staying in touch with parents via e-mail or telephone calls will help. My best hope is that many parents will change their “what can I do?” attitude when they realize I only have their child’s best interest in mind. Hopefully this will help the students to take control of their own learning and achieve high expectation goals for themselves.

Teacher Technology Skills: Wishing you had the appropriate skills will not make them happen. A teacher has to initiate the educational learning for the skills to occur. My best hope is that I will be able to continually improve my skills whether it is from technology classes or utilizing reverse mentoring and learning from my students.

The skills I have learned from ETEC 524 are very valuable. I have always felt that my technology skills resembled a piece of Swiss cheese – full of holes. This class has helped close many of those holes with a solid filling of knowledge. These skills have lessened my fears for using technology for educational purposes. I hope and plan to use the technology skills I have learned from this class such as interactive Power Points, moviemaker, blogs, and wikis to enhance the learning of my current and future students in creative learning experiences.

I often strive to share my teaching expertise with my colleagues especially any seminar or workshop knowledge I may gain. I have been a mentor teacher of alternative certification interns for many years. As a good example of reverse mentoring, I probably learn more technology skills and new innovative learning activities from them than they learn from me in most cases.

I realize I have to do some “mental attitude” adjustments on myself in order to lay some of my technology fears to rest. I also need to use websites such as http://www.4teacher.com/ to enhance student learning. I will continue to use more critical thinking skills in my classrooms and encourage students to set high expectation goals for themselves. I will also attempt to use student reverse mentoring as empowerment over the wide gap between my “digital immigrant” skills and the “digital natives” in my classroom.

Digital Immigrant

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