Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.
Teenagers and the Internet
With the title, “What’s the matter with kids today?: Nothing, actually. Aside from our panic that the Internet is melting their brains,” Salon.com writer Amy Goldwasser offers a brief article that prompts us to rethink our ideas about how and why students are different today.
Teenagers today read and write for fun; it’s part of their social lives. We need to start celebrating this unprecedented surge, incorporating it as an educational tool instead of meeting it with punishing pop quizzes and suspicion.
We need to start trusting our kids to communicate as they will online—even when that comes with the risk that they’ll spill the family secrets or campaign for a candidate who’s not ours.
This article made me think about how we still want our students to consume more than create. When we allow kids to create, we give them more control. This can be scary for us! But the nature of information, and therefore knowledge, has changed. As adults, are we working from a narrow definition of literacy that may not encompass the changes being experienced outside of school? What do you think? This is valuable for us to reflect on as we move full steam ahead on our literacy/technology initiative. Feel free to leave your comments below!
(2) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Next entry: Podcasting with Mrs. Prokesch @ SMS
Previous entry: Toward A Definition of 21st Century Literacies
Comments
I don’t agree with the premise “Aside from our panic that the Internet is melting their brains.” Many people of all ages embrace the Internet. The scary part of the Internet is that many people believe that if it is on the Internet it must be true or good. We’ve seen in almost all of our physical and biological systems (proven time and time again through natural laws) that no control equals chaos, an imbalance in contol equals the system malfunctioning (sometimes to the harm of other systems), the correct balance of control equals an effective and effecient system. But yet in regards to the Internet and education we feel the need to remove the checks and balances that attempt to provide the right amount of control (I know they are not perfect). I also agree that forced reading of what one person or group feels is a classic, is not always the best approach.
This brings us to the first part of the title: “What’s the matter with kids today?” I’ve attached an article that tries to address that question. While I do not agree with every aspect of the article, I believe the basic premise is that certain basic facts and/or knowledge are essential in addition to skills like problem solving, collaboration, listening, communicating, etc. You may be well versed in the latest techniques in any one of these skills. However, if you don’t have basic facts or knowledge the application of these skills can lead to incorrect results. I experience this almost everyday at work and in my personal endeavors. I can give dozens of examples, however, I’ll limit it to a simple one. How many times have you given a cashier $10.50 for a bill totaling $5.48 and get a blank stare and then finally the question why did you give me $10.50 when you bill is $5.48? I normally ask the cashier to ring it up. They do and look up at you with an understanding look (some actually say out loud ... now I understand). The point is they understand the concept. They had to enter it into the cash register to understand the concept because they couldn’t do the basic math. If they couldn’t do the basic math they could never come up with the idea in the first place. I know this is a very simplistic example, however, as I said before I see many examples of this every week in areas that could save money, increase safety, and make life easier.
Our children need to have the right balance of basic facts and knowledge along with the soft skills needed to create a new idea or concept. Lacking one or the other limits their overall potential.
The link I referenced in the previous comment:
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/homeland.php?id=1386915