Response to "Digital Natives to the Rescue"

Response to "Digital Natives to the Rescue"

Dawnne 11 Feb 2010 19:25

This response is a little late in the day, but I enjoyed reading the article. I was especially drawn to the discussion of encouraging the learners to be the digital experts. Available technology evolves rapidly today and will continue to do so, and many of our students are better versed in tech as well as may be better able to teach others. Sometimes a learner can make a concept clearer that the instructor might be able to. I suggest that it's okay to let the learners lead where the learning needs to go sometimes, too.

The discussions of generational personalities were pretty broad. For example, I'm a boomer, but I do not tolerate lecture settings very well. I prefer to study the material on my own and then tease it all apart at my own pace.

Dawnne

Re: Response to "Digital Natives to the Rescue"

Lynda Carrasquel (guest) 11 Feb 2010 19:51

I agree with the idea that students and teachers should both be responsible for the learning that goes on in a classroom. I like to be a facilitator more than an instructor because I think students learn best when they are personally involved in the process. That is especially true when we are dealing with digital natives. However, no matter what the subject there are always those who know more than others or have experiences to share, and if those people are the students then by all means I want to encourage them to share that knowledge. I think we all learn more when there are more people involved in the process.

Regarding Millennials beging digital natives, I have not found that to always be true. I have many students who are in their early twenties who still do not feel comfortable or are not very competent at using word processing or email for their assignments. The few that do feel comfortable are VERY competent. I find that just like every class, there are always those who know more than others, no matter how hard we try to get our classes to be uniform.