Digital natives: Are schools foreign to them?
Dr. Jason Huett
Technology guru and University of West Georgia professor Jason B. Huett said a frontier teacher from a century ago popped into today’s modern era would be agape at the changes she saw every place but one — the classroom.
“When she walked into a school, she would immediately know what this is, and she could pretty much swap her prairie dress for a pants suit and go right to work,” said Huett, West Georgia’s associate dean of online development and USG eCore, a multi-institution collaborative where college students can take classes online.
Huett is among the those urging schools to use technology to make schools more relevant, accessible and flexible and less like a prison sentence.
School districts are heeding that advice — to a point.
For example, DeKalb County Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson announced this week that more than 8,200 students at seven middle schools will receive netbooks in the fall loaded with all their textbooks.
“And by August of 2o14, every student — all middle schools and all high schools — will have their own device,” she said. Every teacher will be getting a laptop.
Even better, all 138 DeKalb schools will be wireless by August, she said. Now, only 38 percent of the district is wireless.
“The fact is that our students are digital natives and active learners,” said Atkinson, speaking at a DeKalb Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “The fact is, they are not limited to the classroom. The fact is, they use the laptop and not the pencil. The fact is … they can’t wait for us to catch up to their style of learning, nor should they have to.”
But are schools catching up fast enough to the realities of a world where today’s young learner will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38?
Students will have to be flexible and adaptable to thrive in this new marketplace. Huett said, “One of the new rules: If you can be out outsourced, you will be outsourced. Are you essential?”
Huett urges a deeper rethinking of how schools function, including the entrenched notion that learning has to be delivered 180 days a year between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Education can no longer be “a cage for every age where we lock students into this planned track,” he said.
Speaking at a Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education forum earlier this year, Huett explained why he fled k-12 education after five years to teach in college: “It felt like I was beating my head into a brick wall. I don’t like to teach people who don’t want to learn.” (Watch video of his talk here.)
He blames a factory model that puts all students on a conveyor belt set to medium speed.
“And the ones that could move ahead faster, we just tell them tough luck. You need to stay on this conveyor belt at medium speed,” Huett said. “And if you are too slow on that conveyor belt, we will take you off, retool you a bit and start you back up at the beginning. We are going to keep running you through this mass-produced system where discipline and order are emphasized above all else.”
To illustrate his point about the tedium of school, Huett shared his favorite student evaluation of a course: “If I had one hour to live, I’d spend it in this class because it feels like an eternity.”
That evaluation resonates because extreme boredom drove Huett to drop out of high school.
“I didn’t stay out for long, mostly because my mother was waking me up every morning by dumping ice cold water on me and telling me to go find a job,” he said. “I was bored to death. When I left school, I honestly did so because I really couldn’t fit in that environment. I was the kind of person who would rather have a fork stuck in my eye than sit for eight hours and listen to someone talk at me.”
Huett said schools have to change because their role has changed. Schools no longer have a monopoly on information. Kids can reach into their pockets, pull out their smart phones and get multiple lifetimes of information. Students need schools to teach them how to critically process all that information, he said.
But Huett cautions educators to avoid the two extremes — online education is going to fix everything or it’s going to ruin everything. “Real reform is almost always to be found in the middle,” he said.
And target reform where it matters. “The meat of real educational reform almost always occurs between the interaction of teacher and student,” he said. “If it isn’t clearly examining and improving that relationship, it probably isn’t going to work.”
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
174 comments Add your comment
10:10 am
December 10th, 2012
6:43 am
@ blabney farnsworth:
The National Education Association and its Georgia incarnation, the Georgia Association of Educators, have endorsed and funded every Democrat nominee for president since the 1970s.
And neither has ever endorsed a Republican or independent for Georgia Governor.
A search on “NEA” and “donations” will bring up reference websites which track political donations reported by the union to government regulatory agencies. Virtually all the NEA’s political money goes to Democrat candidates and liberal causes. And that’s merely what the union chooses to officially report. All Georgia Association of Educators members belong to the NEA ($168 extra yearly).
Integrating more online instruction at the possible cost of classroom jobs—isn’t likely to happen in the moribund public school system without union opposition.
ref: http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt
I Teach Writing
December 10th, 2012
7:25 am
Anyone who uses the term “digital native” uncritically, as Superintendent Atkinson does in the statements Maureen quotes, calls into question his or her capability to make rational decisions about the integration and deployment of technology. Prensky’s term was nonsense when he coined it — a facile attempt to understand the perceived gap between his own generation and those significantly younger in understanding and integrating digital information. Trouble is, using age as a cutoff makes no sense (something research has shown). By Prensky’s reckoning, Tim Berners-Lee, the prime architect of HTTP & HTML, is a “digital immigrant.” So was Steve Jobs. The Xerox team that designed the first graphical OS are older than Prensky. Whereas school children who are still figuring out how to navigate a GUI and have NO IDEA how processing code or networking architecture work (or that they exist) are “digital natives” because they can play Angry Birds.
The truth is that all of us are digital immigrants. We learn to process the world first in analog, then (if given the opportunity) in digital. The former, however, is inherent in our biology, which is why digital delivery of education is still trying to catch up to analog delivery in many respects.
Holding a class discussion via the web, I learned this semester, doesn’t work as well as holding it in person because all participants strive to read both verbal and non-verbal cues from all other participants. Even with video integration, it’s impossible to see each other in the same way, so discussion is often stilted. When the same group met in person, discussion leapt forward.
On the other hand, digital delivery has revolutionized access to the best research in all fields. Databases like JSTOR collect top journals in many different fields, and HS students often have access to a world of thought that I, as a HS student, didn’t even know existed. Visual masterpieces from all over the world are reproduced online, allowing students to examine everything from sculptures to illuminated manuscripts – from anywhere, for free.
The availability of that information, however, even combined with the rudimentary digital literacy displayed even by HS and college students, doesn’t add up to a learning revolution. Solid textual and graphical literacy are prerequisite to high-functioning digital literacy, as the internet is awash in frivolous and false information. Finding the good stuff takes judgement (and strong reading comprehension). Organizing mountains of material found associatively into a coherent unity takes training in logic and rhetoric. All of those basic skills are more easily taught in person (and in small groups). Giving netbooks to elementary students won’t help. That’s a fish-bicycle scenario. Teaching them to read, reason, and evaluate would prepare them better for the digital world. Figuring out how to operate a GUI – any GUI – is pretty easy, once you have those skills.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
7:32 am
@I Teach Writing
Well said!
In our home school, my children do not develop computer skills at the expense of developing traditional literacy skills. They are adept at both.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:21 am
What Imma seeing:
1. truth, you do a lot of great stuff and there’s a place for it, but a lot of your sharp success may have to do with low student ratio/ tutor as teach environment.
2. I see that Jason does not have the authority to write his own syllabus and must import aspects of syllabus, defering to dept. mandate and those gawd-awful steam-pot crock-pot meetings where the dept. brass sit at the their conference table and make everybody mumble for ten hours. This is at a state university. Is that what we want, professors who do not have the authority to write their own syllabi?
3. I see that Mark (Bauerlein) must publish commercially and the former university press model is left in the dust, replaced with editors who use marketing, calling a work “the definitive…” and promoting a top academic as “shocking, surpisingly entertaining romp into the intellectual nether regions” (this is from the book flap of Dumbest Generation). Mark, if someone has not told you, is this a metaphor for underwear? Is that what you want? Do you have editorial control over the presentation of your work? As Jason has no authority over his syllabus, do you have control of what goes on the book jacket? Or do want a second home in the Caribbean or something, as in go for the coin, hence the emphasis on marketing.
4. One aspect of anything online in Georgia means for many that you pay the monopolist Comcast for connection. I just went over and paid my internet service bill. The parking lot had trash all over it and it looked like the mix of a prison / slum outside. I told them to call the 5 guys getting paid $20. million each and tell them to come over with a broom and leaf blower and clean up their business.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:35 am
Good observation that humans are analog. One point about “netbooks” etc., it would make more sense to focus on what is the effective software approach, and the device would be the last concern at the end of the decision tree. There are very few people capable of reaching the best compehensive strategy for digital delivery. It is not a simple thing. In other words, many of the persons trying to implement this shift will not be qualified for such. It is not like buying a consumer item and being done. The education establish, whether they intend to or not, has a pattern of creating disorganization and incoherence. In this regard, the leadership role lies with the intellectuals and academics who must push-back an agenda of relevance.
Just saw an Indian movie and the key line re: the pubic as “Those are not the people who love God. Those are the people who fear God.” In other words, the public does what they are told. The point of the move was to act without fear. Seems a lot of conditions in Georgia are set to make people work in fear. When I asked the people at the land fill for some details on what you can and can not bring (organic cuttings vs. loose bricks) they could provide little detail and said, “Check with the county. We do what we are told.” And then silence. And this is over simple operation matters. In other words, maybe county office types have no business setting operational agenda, they don’t do it very well, hence: incoherence.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:46 am
10:10 I agree with you that with Georgia having no union protection for workers, it is pointless for workers to pay $168. a year to the NEA/GAE. One thing you should know is that teachers are told that they are required to join one of the “the three organizations” for the purpose of obtaining liability insurance for working in a public environment. So there is a bit of a scam at play, and it is official. Teachers are not joining these organizations because they believe in the organization, cause, or politics. They are joininhg / paying these organizations because they are told to do so as a condition of their work for the sole purpose of an insurance policy.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:50 am
There you have it, one aspect of the bureaucrat / insurance / cause group mafia at work. And does it not seem a little inefficient for individual workers to purchase liability coverage? And this is very small change compared with how the health insurance industry is using / playing teachers and the state. These two uses of paying out for “insurance” are making some companies very very rich and taking a goodly proportion of salaries and state funds. Will Americans ever wise-up to the inefficiencies of their health care delivery system?
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
11:48 am
“Will Americans ever wise-up to the inefficiencies of their health care delivery system?”
@PC
SInce you are a Sergey/Google fan, I find it interesting that “Intel, PayPal, eBay and Yahoo were all founded by migrants, though I suppose the most striking example is Google, whose presiding genius and co-founder is the Russian-born Sergey Brin. It was his father Michael, now a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, who took the chance to leave the Soviet Union, with his family (including six-year-old Sergey) in 1979. The Brins were among an exodus of Jewish academics who left the USSR as a result of that nation’s officially sanctioned but publicly unacknowledged anti-Semitism.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-more-migrants-please-especially-the-clever-ones-2368622.html
So, the Brins escaped the COMMUNIST Soviet Union, with its “healthcare for all” to come to the “Land of Opportunity,” with private healthcare, to strike it rich! And what does the GRATEFUL Sergey Brin do for his adoptive country? Well, his company becomes A MAJOR TAX DODGER. You know, hiding billions in profits offshore, all legal of course:
“Google Revenues Sheltered in No-Tax Bermuda Soar to $10 Billion”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-10/google-revenues-sheltered-in-no-tax-bermuda-soar-to-10-billion.html
Perhaps this is why you have nothing but half-blind destitute college students in need of your tutoring services. The “Too Big to Jail” corporations and Wall Street Banksters are sucking the non-immigrant Americans dry. BTW, wasn’t it those very people that invented Communism and funded the Russian “Red” Revolution to begin with?
“Professor Sutton stated, “Western textbooks on Soviet economic development omit any description of the economic and financial aid given to the 1917 Revolution and subsequent economic development by Western Firms and banks.” “In the Bolshevik Revolution we have some of the world’s richest and most powerful men financing a movement which claims its very existence is based on the concept of stripping of their wealth,” declared Allen. “[M]en like the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Schiffs, Warburgs, Morgans, Harrimans, and Milners.”
Perloff agreed, “Jacob Schiff, the head of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., heavily bankrolled the [Communist] revolution. This was reported by White Russian General Arsine de Goulevitch in his book Czarism and the Revolution.” “According to his grandson John,” described Allen, “Jacob Schiff … long-time associate of the Rothschilds, financed the Communist Revolution in Russia to the tune of $20 million.” He continued, “According to a report on file with the State Department, his firm, Kuhn Loeb and Co. bankrolled the first five year plan for Stalin,” and added, “Schiff’s descendents are active in the Council on Foreign Relations today.” ”
http://www.thehiddenevil.com/communists.asp
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
12:24 pm
What’s all the FOSS? How Freedom and Openness Are Changing the Face of Our
Educational Landscape
http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/41950/
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
1:40 pm
More like “What’s all the DROSS?
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
Truth, now I’m serious here. Why do reference the lowest common denominator instead of the highest working model? Can you explain this to me? Is it all a joke to you? Or are you economically isolated and doing “all for me?” I’ve seen dental videos of surgery without anaesthetics in the Ukraine. I know what you are referencing. But tell me, why do reference the perverse and use this to compare your country to as a means of elevation. You are defending the status quo. You must be among those who have it pretty good, are not worried about medical bankruptcy or bills for basic services, where the doctor bill for 2 hours is 15 times your monthly electric bill.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
2:10 pm
Truth, would you see a corollary of the business model of Comcast to be like communism? Where everybody pays and there is no choice and no alternative?
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
2:25 pm
hey truth I know someone with full health insurance better than I’ll ever have and they’re still paying out $500./month for pharmaceuticals.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
6:35 pm
No one is fooled by your attempt at diversion. Your response just confirms what I’ve said all along. Time to get a new trademark. PC’s days are numbered.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
7:06 pm
Truth, when you said a “Sergey fan” I thought you meant a “Serge Gainsborough fan.” (his name even passed the browser spell-check unlike the angel from Google, and yes I operate my home telephone by using their servers – thanks Google!) I am hoping? the circumference of your truth conveys what is hip, as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I_Nm0z1ur4 Hey if you want to be a fan of something, this is good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2tSGvzxJw There’s a lesson in there somewhere. I’m not from Macon. I wouldn’t know.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
7:22 pm
Truth, You got something to say or are you strictly competitive? Seems your rhythm has been ruffled. Well, good. That means you’re getting somewhere. I’m still trying to figure out who you are addressing. Appears to be two people. But you know, no worries. Oh okay. rereading your comment, you are saying I am committing “diversion.” Diversion from what? Kind of difficult to be “diverted” from the Georgia plantation system if you live in Georgia. This is the most no-vocabulary English speaking place I’ve ever seen and to top it off, you get the evil eye if you teach vocabulary in the school system, at least in the government school system. You’ve got a nifty little caste thing going here, truth. I really can’t tell what side of the fence you’re on. At least you can ask me where I stand on something and I’ll try and make it clear to you. You always play sheriff on discussion sides. You should give me some respect, I’m the guy who located where the title post term came from (with some help). That’s worth something, why yes it is. Truth, are you a digital native or a digital immigrant? Or maybe you have a magnetic sphere like Mesmer. Whup. I See how you do it. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DEXV3B97L._SL500_SS500_.jpg
Student Advocate
December 10th, 2012
7:30 pm
@Cobb History – the first thing I would do if my students all have net books is to install mirrors in the back of the classroom!
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
8:38 pm
hey truth, I’ll admit that I sometimes “redirect” to the arts. I believe it stimulates higher order dimension / thinking skills. as far as public health, I may not have the best terms for it, but yes I am firmly in the camp of perspective that it is directly relevant to student performance. Considering the official emphases about performance and such, and to ignore the U. S. situation involving services, it is a conspicuous situation – let me go outside and pound my head against a post to make it feel better. They nerve that Arne and company are demanding first world performance from “all students” while not having health services and support, like eyeglasses, for “all students” is just real reaLLYREALLY a wise guy routine. The typical “American” is not keen to see it that way, but if you study international comparative education in the same way you would study electrical grids, or car manufacturing, or nuclear reactors for power, you will find that most of the developed world does thing much differently that the service-deprivation thing being practiced in the U. S. and maybe particularly in Georgia, since I am gussing? that is some places the states pick up the ball and provide some stop-gap. Well, truth, I am not here to waste my time or hours playing pansy about it. At the very least, we need to be made aware of how the present inefficient service delivery system is not meeting the needs of the public, and that it is done differently elsewhere and with better results that support the propagandistic demands they claim to be addressing here with the saturation testing fetish, the 360 degree teacher evaluations, and whatever hocus pocus the official sources are pushing. I wish I could be coy or something, but I guess that is just where I’m at. Why are yoiu allergic to good policy and getting services for your taxes, or coordinated payment in the interest of efficiency? You seem to have made a foregone conclusion that is is bad or unworkable, like liking the smooth soft dirt road and objecting to someone putting down pavement. I’m not being flippant. You ever go out to someone’s address and find there’s no road sign and the road is dirt? And all the drives are dirt? There’s a lot of that. You might think it’s cool. Maybe it is cool. Lots of school kids without eyeglasses is not cool, however, and I’m here to say it.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
9:27 pm
@PC
Forget tutoring. You are a natural for producing lorem ipsum text…or Greeking.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
10:21 pm
Move over Mena, Arkansas! The people push back in Colorado with Amendment 64. Yes, the good citizens are “One Toke Over the Line!” Now they can keep the revenues themselves to help fund half-blind destitute college students who need tutoring. Lawrence Welk sets the celebratory mood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg
Private Citizen
December 11th, 2012
1:54 am
hey truth, here’s a news story screen capture of the news you mention: http://postimage.org/image/w44h12lk5/
Truth in Moderation
December 11th, 2012
5:48 pm
Digital Natives Begins…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a7IaS3ml4g
Cobb History Teacher
December 12th, 2012
2:25 pm
@Student Advocate…thats a good idea if you stay at the fron of the room. I’d prefer software that would allow me to see their screens on my laptop (kind of like scurity cameras) as I move aroud that way there is no working in one browser while playing in another. I could pull up individula screens for closer inspection when necessary.
Private Citizen
December 12th, 2012
10:36 pm
truth, that’s a captivating video. The French anthropologists – fearless! What courage. You and me must be on the same wavelength. I recently saw this video, which is linked from the excellent video you posted, I like the look on the one lady’s face seeing the camera image on laptop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQgh3I1VLG0#t=1m19s She looks like a real thinker. Intense stuff.