Not Enough Teaching About the Net in Schools
By Paul McMahon on Mar 26, 2009 in Education in Hong Kong, Learning for a Flat World and tagged blocking, networks, schools, SNS, teaching
There are a few reasons why Mark Prensky’s Digital Native term has not been helpful in a school context. The one I want to focus on here is the misperception that it gives some educators, including school leadership, that the students that they have in front of them know a lot about using online tools effectively.
Whilst it is quite true that some of the students have some very well developed skills in lots of the creative and collaborative things that can be done online, it is certainly not the case that all of the students below a certain age possess an innate set of skills that allow them to do some fantastic things online.
it is easy to think that because students have more time to play on the internet that they will pick up more skills but study after study has shown that the skill sets that the students pick up are not the ones that allow them to demonstrate the necessary creative and collaborative skills we are looking for.
In working with Asian schools, it is amazing how many people (teachers and parents) I meet that suffer from this false impression of youth as somehow being “good at computers” because they can put some music on their iPod or can download and install a game and even know how to upgrade the video card to optimize it for playing. THIS IS NOT A MEASURE OF HOW “GOOD” AT COMPUTERS AND THE NET THEY ARE!!
I strongly urge you to read Ewan McIntosh’s post on How to help people better use the net – go to them, let them copy, open up. You will see that Ewan has pulled together a lot of great research to back up his argument that very few of our students have skills on using the full potential of the internet to do things that are creative, meaningful and add to their knowledge or anyone else’s. This is quite troubling given the massive increase in use of online services by youth everywhere, especially brought about by mobile phone usage.
It is time that we really bring the explicit teaching of skills that will assist our students in an increasingly connected and online world to the fore. We blindly say that if kids know more about calculus and Shakespeare that they will be successful whilst knowing how to verify what they find on Wikipedia is of little use (sometimes because it is banned at school anyway).
To me, the argument that there is no room in the curriculum for teaching how to be safe, responsible and clever online is a bit like saying that we do not have time to teach them how to search a library catalog properly. We cannot continue to make statements in our school prospectuses saying things like “nurturing students to be successful in the world of tomorrow” without educating them about this increasingly connected, collaborative and online world.
5 Comment(s)
Hello Paul
I am just letting you know that I have linked to this blog posting in mine to be published next Wednesday.
I can’t run it before then because I am limited to a post a day and have things scheduled in the preceding days.
I hope you find the discussion useful. I think you are on the right track here. Too many teachers are sitting back and watching, assuming that the students already have the wisdom.
Wow! Thanks for this Kerrie. Greatly appreciated and fantastic to get support from both hemispheres. Wish getting change in schools spread as easily!
Best wishes,
Paul
Well said! I think any teacher who regularly uses the internet as anything more than a distraction in class – or, indeed, any of hte applications which students commonly uses – soon realises that students are no more capable of using these tools without explicit instruction than any others. Change IS taking place, but the pity is that it is often in spite of what schools and institutions do rather than as a result of it.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to this Kieran.
I am writing this reply whilst at a presentation for local Hong Kong teachers. It is really interesting to speak with them and hear about their very packed curriculum, which incidentally PISA rates as one of the very best in the world, and hear that they do not have time to teach kids to be responsible online citizens. I think it is almost incumbent upon people like you and I to make a stand and say that we will be prepared to have a child who knows one less chemical element by heart or may not be able to apply every single trigonometric formulae with 100% accuracy or quote from all of Shakespeare’s works if that kid is able to be proud of what a potential employer will find when they Google their name.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment.
Paul
Hey Paul – This idealogy that kids who use the computer alot are good with computers is a falicy for many. I have to laugh when a parent and sometimes administration claims that a student doesn’t need a computer class because he/she is good with computers. Why, because he plays games till all hours in the am? Computer literacy and usage are quite different. “the argument that there is no room in the curriculum for teaching how to be safe, responsible and clever online..” is like saying students don’t need to learn social skills, respect and people skills either. Why do schools overlook this, or assume it’s taught at home? As educators, we are not placing emphasis where it belongs to mold our students for success. We need to address the basics as they have fallen through the cracks for most digital natives.