Speaking with "Digital Natives"

I am invigorated and excited after reading both of Prensky's articles (Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants and Listening to the Natives). I have long believed that we can and should learn from our students. Cooperative learning fosters a open, comfortable, and respectful learning atmosphere.

These articles immediately reminded me of a specific experience I had while observing at Dewitt Middle School in Ithaca. My host teacher had assigned the students to create a short iMovie as a culminating project. She was vaguely familiar with the program but wanted to experiment with what this new technology could offer. She did a tutorial herself and then instructed the class on how to use the program. The kids that didn't' know already how to use the program learned very quickly and those who already knew how to use it were more than eager to share what they knew. The environment was wonderful - everyone sharing and learning together...both students and teachers. These kids were so excited and proud of their final products that I called out of work to watch their movies with them (the viewing happened to be on a day I didn't regularly observe). It was so important to them and I was so honored to be part of it all!

If we can find ways to incorporate all that technology has to offer in our ELA classrooms, I believe that we can reach those students who never seem excited about learning (i.e. reading a bunch of old white guys stuff). We can meet them on their (higher) level and see how much we can accomplish!

This iMovie project was a great culminating project, but I am still mulling it over in my head how we, as ELA teachers, can incorporate these tools and techniques at every level of the learning process. Could we work to create a "choose-your-own-adventure" kind of program for books like The Odyssey or Gulliver's Travels? This way we could get the kids engaged with the technology while still imparting the basics of these classic, interesting, and I believe, essential stories. I do not believe that we should abandon all of the classics, but simply need to find ways to see that these works are fun and useful for our modern, digital students.

That's all for now, my mind is bubbling over with the excitement of this opportunity and trying to express how we can work at every level to incorporate all that technology has to offer us and our students in an ELA classroom.

Spinning with excitement,

Charm