It was nice to be knocked back into reality the other day. As I was presenting to a group of educators on the wonderful resources Thinkinity.org has to offer, I was astounded that no one in the audience had heard the term ‘digital native.’
I had a group of 25 educators sign up for my two-hour Thinkfinity workshop. While planning, I wanted to make sure that I hit three areas:
- Show Thinkfinity.org and what it has to offer.
- Give teachers time to explore the interface.
- Allow teachers a chance to create and/or take away something for their classroom.
I always, have in the back of my mind, the notion that I should probably tie what I’m talking about to the ideas on 21st Century Teaching and Learning – but I’m never quite sure how far to go with it. To be sure that I’m not preaching to the choir, I usually do a short formative assessment (ask ‘em a few questions) and see where folks stand on tech integration, some of the ‘buzzwords’ of the times, etc.
This time I was astounded at the lack of awareness.
- No one was familiar with the idea of ‘digital immigrants vs. digital natives.’
- No one had heard the mantra of “21st Century Skills.”
- No one could identify the acronym KUD. (Know, Understand, Do) As in, “what do you want your students to Know, Understand, and Do after this lesson.”
I’ve been taking things for granted since I get to go to several conferences and workshops a year that deal with teaching and learning and how to use tech to help engage kids. I didn’t bother trying to convince the powers that be to let me go to NECC this year after they said it wasn’t in the budget. Last year I felt that I’d heard many of the messages over and over, and I felt that I had enough for this year — and I was tired! (Is that ok to say, or am I just being a wuss?)
Long story short – it was a good feeling to actually dive into some of these concepts with folks who hadn’t heard them before. I felt like I was making a difference with this group – though they were very quiet. They sort of looked at me like I had three heads when I gave them time to explore Thinkfinity, suggested they talk to each other, collaborate, and work together. It was almost as though they thought I had ulterior motives or wanted to catch them goofing off.
In the end, it was refreshing to read their comments about the workshop:
- “We never have time to actually try things out in these workshops – thanks for letting us have hands-on time to explore.”
- “Thanks for time to search for resources – we are always shown the tools but are never given a chance to use them.”
- “I found several resources that I can use in my classroom – thanks for the time to dig deep into Thinkfinity. What a great resource!”
This scares me.
It isn’t rocket science that teachers need time to actually try things out and ‘kick the tires’ on new tools. Why aren’t more workshop organizers recognizing this need and supporting our teachers in their quest to improve their classrooms?
