Class 7 Readings

How is digital media changing kids and learning?

Wow, I don't know where to begin. There was a lot of ground covered in this audio clip; it was a meeting of great minds that included Howard Gardner. So, I will just comment on what struck me the most, and what the value of this information possesses.

Technology is here, and it is not going away. Even established thinkers and writers who have not really been in the Tech world are now entering it, like Howard Gardner. Schools are more and more seeing the need to build new curriculums incorporating the tools and benefits of technology. The MacArthur foundation is funding an initiative to really inform and steer this new frontier looking at both positive and negative implications. And all of this is being done because of a new reality. Students are raised in a high tech environment, and we need to provide the support they need to use it well.

The thing that stuck with me was some of the discussion over the Tech Divide. I have some mixed feelings and tend to only partially agree with anything I hear. I disagree with the notion that kids are "natives" to technology. I would call them "users/consumers" of technology. Most of the students who have MySpace, etc., do not create media, they consume it (in the clip it said like 12% create media). Students my make some ignorant adults impressed but, lets really look at the true tech aptitude of both the student and the adult. To me, I think there is a real crisis in literacy and thoughtfulness in students. They are not actively thinking and evaluating, they consume and experience. They don't read at the levels of previous generations, and especially when it comes to functional text, which happens to be the text that they are most likely to see on a computer outside of their diet of media.

So, it was a great audio clip. I would have liked to be there and have voiced my concerns above.