Residential class - Day I

Day I

                  The first session - Digital natives/ digital immigrants

On the very first day of our residential classes we had the opportunity to learn about something that opened our eyes. We were introduced to the differences between digital Natives and the digital immigrants. We were convinced that people born after 1980 are digital natives but those born before 1980 are digital immigrants. And many of our colleagues fall under the the later one. Digital natives are born in a digital world. They learn to live in the digital world at an early age. They love to cut and paste. They prefer visual information over text unlike the digital immigrants. They are skilled at using mobiles and internet facilities. But it is just the opposite for the digital immigrants.

The discussion was also extended in discussing about the teaching in 21^st century, ICT in education and the need of ICT in education.  Teachers are not the main source of information. Text books are digitized. The information from the texts is made available in the soft copies.  The ICT skills and information are used in the teaching and learning processes. The diverse set of technological tools and resources are used to communicate, create, disseminate, store and manage information. There is a need of ICT in education to expand access and improve the quality. It creates a real learner-centered learning making it effective for all anytime and anywhere.

There are different informative tools. The good examples would be like the use of text, audio, video, graphics and flash. Children learn to use different forms of information or the multi-media skills and knowledge. These are more advanced as compared to the past.

Critical Analysis

A great number of teachers who are still teaching fall under the digital immigrant category. They need to be aware of the digital skills and train themselves. The learning must happen so that they can guide the digital natives.

The old teaching strategies and skills will no longer support children’s learning. The learning styles have changed. With the change the strategies have to be changed. The teaching strategy for the digital natives is to set up class blog, class wiki site, using online assignments and sharing photos and resources.

Teaching the 21^st century skills to our children is more important. The skills are critical thinking, media literacy, communication, collaboration, information literacy and creativity. From the list, I feel that the maximum focus has to be on media and information literacy. This is because they are the backbone of the people living in the digital world. Without them we would be as good as being blind. We cannot do anything. It is the teachers responsibility to help our children acquire skills and the knowledge required.

Future commitment

Our school is quite lucky that we have access to Wi-Fi connection.  Children have the opportunities to use the facility. But at the moment I cannot do anything other than helping myself learn. This is because I deal with lower kids. They need to wait for some more time. However, the most important commitments to make at this point are:

1. I am going to prepare myself to fit in the digital world. I must learn the new teaching strategies.
2. I must acquire new skills of the 21^st century so that I can guide my students in the future.
3. Teaching the skills to the children whenever there are possibilities.

         For the future my commitment would be on:

• Adopting new teaching strategies.
•  Initiating in setting up class blog and class wiki
• Make use of the online assignments. This will help teachers to provide comments and feedback instantly to help children produce better assignments results.