- Mahatma Gandhi

It’s been around since 2001, and has been talked about and referred to at almost every Educational Technology conference I’ve been to since that time. The terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” are now thrown around so frequently that it doesn’t even need to be explained any more.

Prensky’s thinking about effective ways to reach today’s students continues to evolve. He continues to work to apply some of his thoughts from this, his most famous article, to different contexts.

I highly recommend checking out his website. I have just perused it a bit, and really wish I had more time to read more of his stuff right now, but I really must get to sleep soon.

Some of the books and articles that I have also read, or at least are on my list to read are the following (he really chooses great titles, doesn’t he?):
Engage Me or Enrage Me
Don’t Bother Me, Mom — I’m Learning! (his latest book)
…there are many more… I sometimes just love to look at the titles of articles and books, and get an extremely brief version of the main thought of the writing. This is one reason I love to hang out in bookstores so much.

His writing is full of eye-opening quotes, not from philosophers or theologians, but simple statements from these Natives that he has provided such clarity about.

Why am I finally getting around to responding to this article? This week I’m going through SB 472 training, which is a California “thing” (SB meaning Senate Bill) where we get a week of training on our new textbook, in this case, Math. This article was assigned as homework one of the days.

OK, so what do I think of the article itself? Here are the specific points that I found particularly striking, amusing, etc.:

•The phone call asking “DId you get my email?” has happened at my school. We’ve talked about reducing the interruptions to the classroom (silent emails being much less disruptive than a phone call), but viewing this not as annoying defeating the purpose, Prensky has reminded me that the office personnel is probably “speaking with an accent” here

•I was amazed at how proficient my students were at playing certain games they showed me on the internet during the last few days of school, one being Club Penguin. TypeRacer is another example that was spontaneously very successful. Ever since becoming familiar with Prensky’s thinking, and other progressive, forward-thinking experts in educational technology, I have had a passion for trying to figure out how to “get rid of my accent”, and how to best use the “language” of my students, the digital natives, to reach them. I want to figure out how to use games to make learning more engaging, since this is what I am, in fact, competing with. I will be seen as boring and irrelevant if I don’t learn to speak their “language.” We must “engage them or enrage them.” This is more than pithy, clever sayings. This is for real. This is why I get grouchy about those that insist on our students learning the culture of the Digital Immigrants:

•It’s very tempting to conclude, as Prensky “quotes”, My students just don’t ___ like they used to,” etc. What we need to do is to recognize that they ARE DIFFERENT THAN US. We need to change and adapt. We need to learn from them, as well as them learning from us.

•”‘Future’ content includes the ethics, politics, sociology, languages, and other things that go with the software, hardware, etc.” This is one reason I would like to see a more loose policy on cell phones at school. We need to teach them how to appropriately use them (or, in most cases, NOT use them) I experimented with having my students use their cell phones as calculators, but ran into some problems with some very valid issues that administration brought up. Even so, it saddened me that we couldn’t bring some of the technology that they see as absolutely relevant in their lives into the classroom learning experience. I saw many of my students kind of “come alive” when I validated some of their “native” culture. It’s a sticky one…very interesting…

•He mentions games to teach concepts like classical philosophy, the Holocaust, etc.  This renewed my enthusiasm to try and find game to help teach concepts to my students. He acknowledges that many of the attempts at this have been pretty bad (edutainment), but that we must continue to improve, because WE CAN FIGURE THIS OUT! One game that has been successful “in” my 6th grade classroom has been Civilization. Since I teach Ancient Civilizations, this is an IDEAL application. No, I can’t use class time for it. But I can offer a copy or two for checkout to my students. I can refer to it when we’re discussing content from our textbook. I can encourage students to get together in the classroom after school, or at each other’s houses , to play it together. I can affirm the expert in my room who knew about it before I even mentioned it, and had a more advanced version than I did; I can ask him to share with the class what the game taught him about ____ (filling in the concept that we were studying that day).

I’m far from figuring out how to apply Prensky’s thoughts to my own classroom practice, but I feel good about how I’ve started to experiment…

PS – David Thornburg and Hall Davidson have both written recently about Prensky’s thoughts. Thornburg expressed some reasons that Prensky’s thesis is incomplete, inadequate, and/or inaccurate. Davidson sided with Prensky, and did a great job of expressing why. This discussion took place in the OnCUE Journal, published by CUE, Computer Using Educators, with Thornburg writing an article, then Davidson and Thornburg both writing a letter to the editor, continuing the conversation. This will really be something to watch. These guys are both such great thinkers and leaders, I’m not sure I know which one I agree with!! I guess I’ll live in the tension…

Enjoy!

Fear and anxiety – on the part of students. “Will I do well? Have I learned enough? Will I please my teacher/school/parents? Can I prove that I’m smart, or will this show just how dumb I’m afraid that I am?”

Fear and anxiety – on the part of teachers and administration at every school in California that has “Program Improvement” sanctions breathing down their neck. “Did I teach my students well enough? Will we retain local control? Will our school get drastically re-organized by the state?”

Anger and frustration – on the part of, well, almost everyone (except the legislators who wrote the NCLB law that creates the pressure). “Why does this dad-gum test have to dictate so terribly much that goes on? Why so much pressure on one test? This is not good for kids! We’re teaching them that this test is the most important thing, not actual learning that goes on for a lifetime! Will they remember what this test measures when it actually applies to their life? Will they remember things we’ve taught them that aren’t on this test? Why is our worth as a school defined by this test so heavily? This is oppressive… Where’s the inspiration? Excitement for learning for learning’s sake? Thirst for knowledge?”

Fatigue – on the part of many teachers. “Wow! We’ve been working our tails off all year for this! We’re wiped out!!!

Relentlessly hard work designing great lessons that target specific standards (especially key standards),
progress monitoring assessments,
data-driven intervention,
practicing test-taking strategies and the ELA and Math content with the CST Released Questions,
sermon-ettes trying to fill the kids’ heads with hope and comfort,
reading Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!,
etc.

Most of the emotion today is probably negative, I would guess. Otherwise we wouldn’t call it “high stakes.” Kind of a confusing little season of the year. I suppose a lot of adrenalin will drop, on the part of many teachers and students. However, I’m sure there is some positive emotion going on today regarding these tests, as well.

Excitement and confidence – on the part of some students. Especially when students open their booklets and see that they really know lots of the answers they were perhaps afraid of before the test began.

Relief – on the part of some teachers. “Whew! I’m glad that’s over. Now we have some time to relax a little bit. Now we can be a bit more flexible about things. I just hope the students are still able to focus on learning and doing their best…”

Relief – on the part of students. “Finally! This famous test is finally here! Whether I do good or bad [well or poorly], let’s get it over with! I’m sick of my teacher talking about it all the time… ”

I guess I feel some of all the emotions above. But as I look around my classroom, I am heartened. I see my classroom library of 2000 books, and remember all that we have done in this room to strengthen their love of reading and love of good literature. I look at students who are finished with their tests, and have a look of excitement and contentment as they read their books, wondering what’s going to happen next. I think about the multimedia projects that we are going to be working on later this afternoon, and I know that they are going to learn things through that project that aren’t testable by any standardized test. I think about the lessons on writing coming up this week, and all the writing instruction I’ve done this year. Even though writing is much, much harder to assess, it is so incredibly important to their success in life. I am heartened to imagine all the writing and blogging my students will still be doing this year.

I have done my best to teach all the curriculum standards in this grade level. I established a classroom climate where my students and I respect each other (not 100% success there, but I’m proud to reflect on the significant relational success that we have achieved here). I know that many, many, many of my students have grown in very significant ways this year. I know I grew a lot, and that my students grew a lot…

See, there I go – I’m writing as if this is the end of the year. Like all the learning is over! This bugs me because we have several weeks of school to go, and the emphasis on this test is so significant, it feels like school’s practically over, even when it’s not over…just because the measure by which we are judged is over…
I shared a draft of this blog with my students right after the first portion of their test was over. It was an incredibly positive, enlightening conversation. I asked my students to critique my writing, using the 6 Traits of Writing, or any feedback they had at all. Here are some of the comments: (I’ll try to paraphrase as accurately as possible)

“You had good Voice. That sounded just like you when you said, ‘ Why does this dad-gum test have to dictate so terribly much that goes on?’”
“Mr. Warkentin, you hit the nail on the head!”
“You’re right…about being nervous, and then about feeling relieved.”
“You put it really well when you said…”

We discussed Ideas, Voice, Organization, and all the rest of the Traits. It was a rich, encouraging conversation. I think they felt validated for their emotions and encouraged that their teacher, “gets it.”
—————–
During this conversation, I realized that I had forgotten at least two emotions:
Boredom – on the part of students (and teachers, I suppose). This isn’t exactly the most exciting day of the year. One of the most important, for several reasons (that none of us like), but not the most exciting. The student that shared this thought said that she was bored, but from a perspective of being confident. Like the test was easy for her. I, of course, was excited about this, but honored the validity of this emotion about the test.

STRESS! was another emotion that I didn’t acknowledge about the test site coordinator. There are numerous ways to mess up on administering the test other than just plain getting answers wrong. When these happen, massive headaches threaten to completely ruin the day/week…

1. We adopted another baby, which involved a month-long trip to Chicago, which is where he was born.
2. We’re trying to move from our current house to a place in a neighboring community.
3. This year in my job has been tough, from a personal growth in tech integration perspective, has been difficult… No support for further integration of blogging, podcasting, or other Web 2.0 tools. No Child Left Behind, and our site administration’s interpretation of our “Program Improvement” sanctions, have really taking a lot of energy.

All of these have kind of crowded out professional blogging (this blog) for a spot at the top of the priority list. Sometimes, I think of it like this: I should spend more time communicating with my wife and sons (people I can actually see and live with) rather than people I don’t see and probably have never met. Kinda crummy, since I really enjoy this blog.I’ve been thinking about writing a lot, though. I have grown in lots of ways. Not ways that involve giving you, my blog audience, a new link or website to try in your classroom, but growing nonetheless. Some growth has been personal, some has been professional, some has been spiritual. Through a lot of pondering, I’ve decided that learning and growth is messy, learning and growth doesn’t fit neatly into one box or the other all the time, and that I need to write about topics that don’t necessarily fit into one neat category.Some topics I’ve been pondering, that are worthy of discussion here, might even relate to the spiritual. I am a Christian, and am very enthusiastic about God’s truth, and what He would have me do with my life, my job, and my relationships. Until now, I have hesitated to branch out from this blog’s initial subtitle, “Reflections of how to empower students and other teachers with and about technology.” Perhaps this was arrogant in the first place. Perhaps it put a lot of pressure on me. Perhaps it was simply too narrow. In any case, I’ve decided to include more topics in this blog. I won’t even have to change its name (”Come follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19) So for my occasional posts about faith, I’ll just categorize my posts appropriately, so those of you who might not want to read about how faith relates to the job of a teacher, can just skip those. But those of you who’d like to explore how the Christian faith is relevant to daily life can go ahead and join the dialogue with me. In the meantime, I’ll have to figure out a new subtitle. Any suggestions?

We remember 10% of what we read.
We remember 20% of what we hear.
We remember 30% of what we see.
We remember 50% of what we hear and see.
We remember 70% of what we say.
We remember 90% of what we say as we do a thing.
We remember 100% of what we present.

This has terrific applications/implications for teaching. Having students present to each other is very important (they’ll remember 100% of that content). Sometimes harder to do as far as lesson plans, etc., but if our goal is for students to remember what we’re wanting to each them, we need to move in this direction. Of course, any of the other activities listed are an improvement on just expecting our students to read something and remember it. This as challenging to me as I am nearing the beginning of a new school year.

On Wednesday, Pi day, we had an Albert Einstein look-alike contest. I was crazy and brave enough to really go all out for this one.

We also sang a song together about Pi. I got the idea from this website. We were also amused, but a little freaked out by, this song:

At exactly 3/14, 1:59 and 26 seconds, my students made as much racket as possible! I had brought in my congas, mini-djembes, tambourine, etc., etc. Some of my students had brought in their band instruments like trumpets, etc. I gave my neighbor-teacher fair warning about the inevitable disruption this noise would cause! She decided to have her students join in the joviality.

When I wasn’t Albert Einstein, I wore this shirt a couple of days.

To my surprise, my colleagues didn’t just think it was cool or nerdy… They were all jealous! They wished I would have told them how to buy one for themselves long enough ago so we could all wear them together! How cool is THAT?!

One of my colleagues did have one. Here’s a couple of pictures of us wearing them.

The other two teachers and I had a few minutes’ break one day, and we decided to do a little digital storytelling. That’s what this YouTube video is. This was made just with iPhoto and iTunes. Here’s how:

1. Take still shots, imported them into iPhoto,
2. Click on “Slide Show” to choose the song to be played,
3. Exported the slide show as a QuickTime movie,
4. Upload the movie to YouTube (you’ll need to set up a YouTube account first).

The other classes at my school have really enjoyed seeing this video. By the way, the song “Scat,” which you’ll hear in the background, is one that we sang with the kids to help them understand the nutrient cycle. I’d explain that concept here, but the song does such a better job of it – and in a much more entertaning way, too!
Enjoy the video!

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for quite a while (we went to Scicon in January, and here it is St. Patrick’s Day
In the video, you’ll see me wearing this shirt. Every time I see this
shirt in my drawer, I have thought of this. So, here, I’ve kept up my apparent promise to “blog this.”
Isn’t the shirt cool?

By the way, I made another video, and intended to upload this the same way, but I can’t seem to get the sound to go with it. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? If you watch this one, you won’t fully “get” what it’s all about. Just know that there was a tremendous amount of laughter, and it was an absolute blast for all – students and adults alike!

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with any original thought.”

He clarified it by saying,

“This is not to say that being wrong is the same as being creative. You just need to be prepared to be wrong.”

Very interesting.

By the way, I have become a big fan of StumbleUpon. That’s how I found the video I refer to above. It gives you somewhat random websites that are based on the interests that you select when you set up your free account.
It’s very easy to get started. Just follow the link and start “stumbling”.

There was a negative boy who couldn’t decide whether or not to go to a radical party.
The boy was a square, and he missed out on 4 awesome chicks.
The party was over at 2 am.

Here’s the equation itself.