Joe Tojek
Capella University
http://www.capella.edu
Posted on October 19 2006 1:45 PM

I would like to see this child able to participate at this level both inside the school environment and at home.

At school, this participation should include face to face social interaction that scaffolds learners in critical skills around digital media and provides them with tools to understand the implications of their participation and to apply that framework to their activities at home or anywhere outside the school.

Mel Chua
Posted on October 20 2006 5:05 AM

I see this child as an “unschooler,” learning at a furious pace outside the traditional school building. Perhaps they are a little lonely because of this. As this new paradigm of schooling takes hold, the pioneers are always going to feel a little strange (although vibrant unschooling networks exist, the knowledge that the majority of your peers have a different sort of life will always exist). Some adults may not know how to deal with this new kind of young learner. The child will probably have encouraging and permissive parents who care about his or her education and are bold enough to encourage this kind of experimentation, and come from a socioeconomic background that makes it acceptable to take this kind of educational risk, and can provide resources for doing so.

Unfortunately, not all children grow up with supportive parents or the freedom or resources to pursue this kind of education. Making it financially and culturally possible for children to attend informal schools (somehow still high-performing and prestigious, so more traditional parents will let their children attend) and work with mentor-teachers bold enough to let students explore their own interests might be a good compromise. The Sudbury School in Massachusetts is one example.

Such a child might learn how to use technological tools if they are available, but the important thing is the mindset that everything is a potential source of knowledge. A good mentor who opens your eyes to the information hidden in conversations or tree moss is much better than the best computer in the world and the lack of a good mentor to show you its possibilities.

Larry Gourley
Public School Teacher
http://www.onbeingglobal.com
Posted on October 21 2006 10:04 PM

I’ve taught Millenials since 1992 in settings that include an international school in Singapore and American public school settings. I’ve had the chance to observe students collaborate in virtual project teams, by e-mail, and traditional penpal projects as a classroom teacher and technology coordinator.

This year, I watched in amazement as a student in my very diverse urban school switched seamlessly between his portable Sony PSP with a wireless Internet connection, his cell phone, his textbook, and his friends (while listening to his MP3 player). His communications crossed cultures in our very diverse urban school. He didn’t need me to dispense any knowledge, I had
was just a facilitator, motivator, and traffic cop. 

The student sitting next to him only had a textbook. The student with the textbook passed his state science exam while the multitasker did not.

Which student will be able to compete with his/her overseas peers in an age of globalization, offshoring, and virtual project teams? My money is on the multitasker despite his “apparent” study flaws. 

Right now, schools are still trying to ban the tools that make up informal learning (ie, Web 2.0). This is a losing battle and poor strategy. Public schools have to change to meet these students at least halfway.

Right now, the student described in my initial comment will continue to learn digital skills outside of school. His learning “in school” will include cross-cultural team skills needed to work on virtual project teams in a global marketplace. His peers without access to digital knowledge will not. The gap grows everyday.

I’ve grown so convinced of the need for learners to learn team skills and cross-cultural skills, that I’ve public education to pursue this interest.

Clarence Fisher
http://remoteaccess.typepad.com
Posted on October 22 2006 10:13 AM

In my classroom we work very hard to learn to use and understand 2.0 tools and their effect on our culture. We use wikis, we play video games, we podcast, we blog, and shoot vlogs. These kids do not care that they come from a small (approx. 1 000 people) Northern Canadian town. They do understand that these technologies give them as much voice and opportunity as anyone else online has. On a final exam last year, I asked the question: “what do these changes mean for media? What do these changes mean for whose voice we get to hear?” One very wise 7th grade girl told me, “You don’t have to be some rich old guy from New York now to produce things that people might watch. You can live anywhere.” In classrooms where these skills are not taught and where teachers turn their backs on these ideas, the kids simply go home and enjoy what I call “underground digital apprenticeships” where many of them learn the skills they need to prosper in a global environment, but with little guidance. We are losing the opportunity to lead....

Lucy Hausner
Posted on October 23 2006 1:54 PM

I see this child as the one currently at the back of the classroom who has no idea what the teacher is talking about, who’s uncomfortable asking questions because it will reveal how much s/he is out of it academically, who has no academic support from family or friends from the time s/he was born, and who is either going to drop out of school at the earliest opportunity, be suspended endlessly be regularly truant, and will very likely find other ways to buttress his/her self esteem.  With high quality, computer-based education components (CDs so they work in any computer regardless of bandwidth) adjustable to start where each learner is and move them along at their own pace and designed to accommodate varying learning styles, located in schools so teachers can coach these students without embarrassment on the student’s part, and with a one-to-one relationship between student and learning material and between student and teacher, these students can begin to experience the joy of learning, of using the minds they have, of teaming with other students on projects important to them and/or their community.  PLEASE SOMEONE think about these kids in this enormous initiative.  Computer-based learning is not just for distance learning.  It’s also for helping students who lag behind.  And PLEASE make computer-based curricula that uses the full capabilities of the medium (not text on screen).  From here we go to adult education (basic and otherwise), and, in my own line of work, to computer-based courses for individuals recovering from mental illness who need to re-learn basic skills to function effectively in the community.

a.c. burgess
Posted on October 25 2006 7:46 PM

I’m an ESL Major and an Educator/Student at a Private College in Puerto Rico. I’ve returned to study after teaching for the last 3 years in wealthy St. John, USVI.I’ve read a great deal of what is posted on this blog and it leaves me even more convinced that a relationship does exist between perceived caring and motivation in the ESL classroom in Puerto Rico and students mastery of technology as a tool to preserve culture. The perception study is part of a Masters Proposal I put together and remains in progress. My opinion about students/technology (video/digital film making)and culture comes from my work with 5th and 6th graders in the Virgin Islands. Combining the two has serious educational implications. Is thier anyone out there that might be able to offer advice, input or words of sage as to how I might measure the two? I can execute a study, you can as well. However, how do we measure this? Please write back!