Down from the Trees and Up to the Moon

 Dr. Michael Wesch noticed that there were multiple aspects of our education system that were actually discouraging students from learning.

He took a look inside of a classroom that was supposedly set up for learning.

There was a large screen on one wall which was facing a room full of stationary chairs. 

This was not a room that was meant to foster learning, he decided.  It was a room designated for dumping information onto people.  

He got the impression that the most prevalent goal of the students that surrounded him was to just "get by".  Their concern was, what exactly do I need to do to pass this class? 

Which also lead to what Wesch describes as the "vaccination" notion; the students impression that they just have to pass a class to get it over with.  

You take it.  It's done.  You never have to think about it again.

And yet at the same time, students felt defined by the grades that they received.  Continuously earning C's or D's, with no chance of revision or redemption, discouraged students from trying any harder and made them think, "well, this is just who I am."  More often than not, those grades were not at ALL an accurate reflection of the student's abilities or potential.  

He encountered fellow faculty members who, when speaking about student's who were underachieving, explained it away by saying that, "some people just aren't cut out for school." Wesch was absolutely appalled.  He reminded us that the purpose of school is to learn.  So if we more accurately rephrase that statement then we find that what his colleagues are really saying is, "some people aren't cut out for learning."

Dr. Wesch offers up suggestions that he's developed through teaching and seeing the effects first hand 

An educators goal should be to inspire their students to leave the classroom with more questions.

"Asking questions, taking chances, making connections took us down from the trees and up to the moon."

What Dr. Wesch found to be the three driving questions for any student that he met were

1. Who am I?

2. What am I going to do?

3. Am I going to be okay?

A great teacher is someone who can help  students to address these questions

Instead of trying to teach students how to make a living, educators should structure their courses in such a way that they are providing their students with the resources they need to learn how to live a life worth living.

Change the grading system to accommodate students and encourage them to continue to try instead of give up.

He makes the point that, "we are more than our scores" and "learning is a lot more than what can be scored."

Welsch demonstrates the model he uses for scoring long-term projects and likens it to climbing a tiered mountain, where the top of the mountain is somewhere worth going.  His students are all climbing each tier of the mountain together and helping one another to get to the top.  If a student starts to fall behind, they are not given a failing grade, they are given a "Not yet, keep working at it". 

We can all learn from Baby George who, every single time he fell while climbing down the stairs, smiled and laughed at the misstep then got right back up to try again.  

"We keep on loving ourselves, even when we fall."

Thoughts on the Digital Native

First, I watched the slide presentation on Prensky and his description of the "digital native" versus the "digital immigrant".  

It made sense.  Although most of the points that were made were pretty broad generalizations, I could get on board with it.

I myself would fall somewhere in between "native" and "immigrant" status, but I have had a lot of experience interacting with both sides of the spectrum and a lot of the differences that Prensky pointed out between the two generations rang true.  

My dad, for example, prints out every single email that has even an ounce of importance to him.  He is a culprit of using nouns instead of verbs such as, "I sent your friend a request on the facebook." as opposed to, "I friended you". He is absolutely a believer that "real life" does not exist online.

My 9 year old step-daughter on the other hand, approaches life very differently.  Everything that she does is on her Chromebook or her iPad.  She operates at twitch speed and she is used to parallel processing as she quickly switches back and forth from her roblox account, to Tik Tok, to FaceTime with her friends.  

Then I read Danah Boyd's chapter entitled, "are today's youths digital natives?" and I immediately realized how problematic Prensky's way of thinking could potentially be.  

Boyd makes a few stand-out counter arguments right off the bat.  

1. "Just because teens are deeply engaged with technology does not mean that they inherently have the knowledge or skills to make the most of their online experiences."

Boyd references the number of students she came across who could maneuver seemingly effortlessly around facebook, but had difficulty with a google search.  

The number one thing to consider here is digital inequality.  "Teens' technological skills are strongly correlated with the quality of their access." And socio economics plays an enormous role in determining which kids have quality access and those who do not.  

Boyd also makes the point that navigating ones way through the internet is exponentially easier today than it was when it first emerged.  That being said, "when technologies are designed to make everyday use as easy as possible, it is not necessary for users to learn the technological skills that early internet adoption required."

2. "Youth need opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge to engage effectively and meaningfully."

The term "digital native" can easily mislead adults who are educators into believing that their students know all that they need to know in regards to technology because they were born into it.

In reality, media literacy is not innate knowledge. There are countless sources flooding the internet with information, a lot of it completely false or entirely biased, and there are too few intermediaries controlling the flow of information. In order for youth to be effective and responsible technology users they must be taught how to, "ask questions about the construction and dissemination of media.  What biases are embedded in the artifact? How did the creator intend for an audience to interpret the artifact? What are the consequences of that interpretation?" 

Boyd found that many of the students she spoke with honestly believed that if they found information on google, it had to be true.  

That's scary.  

She feels, and I agree, that teachers are doing a disservice to their students by limiting their access to inaccurate or problematic information.  Instead, these types of sites should be presented to students in order for them to scrutinize the source and learn to think critically about what they are reading on the internet.  

3. There is an inherent cultural problem and implied connotation when using the terms "native" versus "immigrant"

aside from the obvious problematic nature, one must also consider that historically immigrants who took over land from natives also destroyed their communal knowledge and ways of life.  So it begs to ask the question: in Prensky's world of digital natives, "do people intend to recognize native knowledge as valuable? Or as something that needs to be restricted or controlled?

Brief Intro

 Hey There,

My name is Dania and I am just about finished with my Masters in Teaching Music.  I will be student teaching in the fall then graduating in December.  My hope is to become a high school choral director.  

For the summer, in addition to taking this course I am working as a server at a restaurant that I used to manage back in my food service career days.  

I am also happily getting back into improv comedy for the first time since COVID shut everything down.  

My partner and I spend a lot of time with his two beautiful daughters and he and I have another little one on the way.  

Some fun things I enjoy that you might like to check out:

Always planning the next family vaca....even if its years away

Dreaming of buying a villa in Italy one day

This new improv community coming together soon