Middle School Tech

Don Tapscott has written several books documenting the transition from whatever we were doing in the 20th century to whatever we are doping now… let’s just say he has documented the digitization of western society.

His most recent book is Grown Up Digital (a companion of sorts to his Growing Up Digital published about a decade ago). In this work, Tapscott describes Net Gen’ers (those 18-30 year olds who have grown up in the digital age). Most of the book describes how work, the economy, families, and of course schools have/are/will changed/changing/change in response to the characteristics of this generation and how this generation is using modern information technology.

Tapscott defines eight norms; these characterize young people’s use of technology and these are influencing other aspects of their lives (and these are forming their expectations of everything):

freedom

customization

scrutiny

integrity

collaboration

entertainment

speed

innovation

Net Gen’ers expect this… I am very worried about my colleagues… not my middle school colleagues (well… I am worried about some middle school colleagues), but those educators who refuse to realize the reality of these news expectations are in trouble.

When I checked my school email this morning (for the first time in two weeks) I had an urgent message from a colleague… his principal had cut all of the software money for next year “how are we supposed to keep kids up-to-date with no money?” he asked. As it turned out, his school has not upgraded the productivity suite since I worked with him years ago!

I directed him towards OpenOffice, and he emailed me later thanking me for the info, and suggesting this software will probably fill the need for next year.

Two morals to this story:

1) Open source may be an option for helping use get through the tough economic times…

2) An open message to school leaders: Sure open source may help us, but don’t assume your “tech guy” (apologies to my fellow techies who are women) knows all of the open source alternatives. Have some patience, and consider giving a small stipend (or at least some cookies!) in exchange for spending hours evaluating open source alternatives.

Another story… I broke down and converted my dissertation over to an rtf file in Word over the weekend… every time someone on my committee opened the file in Word (I used OO to create the file), made comments, and sent it back to me, some formatting was messed up… I plugged my nose and converted it… don’t tell anyone!

“Technology is changing our culture.”

My 14-year-old son has a wise response to everything… and his response to this statement is one of his favorites, “thank you, Captain Obvious.”

As I have been writing my dissertation proposal, my statement is becoming exceedingly clear to me, and I have found some books that are “must reads” for educators. One of those books is summarized in this post.

Dr. Gary Small & Gigi Vorgan collaborated on iBrain: Strategies Surviving the Technological Alternation of the Modern Mind (ISBN: 978-0-06-134033-8). Which is gives a brief, but complete overview of the issues facing educators who recognize the quickly-approaching point at which we (educators) adopt modern information technology and adapt or practices or we fade into the memory of once-relevant institutions.

Small & Vorgan proceed this way: First, they review recent research on the effects of technology on the brain. (Yes, there are affects; yes it is use of the technology that is changing how our brains work; no, the changes will not all improvements on current skills; in the modern world information is different, the organs we use to access information are different).

Second, Small & Vorgan define digital immigrants (adults) and digital natives (kids) and argue we have something to learn from each other.

Third, Small & Vorgan detail some of the good, bad and different of technology use in modern society. Online addiction (it is real), over use of screen-media by young children (can interfere with brain development), emerging markets (economics are not what they used to be), and social interactions (our kids are more connected than we ever were!) are all described in language any digital immigrant can understand.

Fourth, Small & Vorgan review some of the technology tools every digital immigrant must learn to use.

Overall a great book for educators…

Check out the book at the HarperCollins web site (includes sample pages, table of contents, and other content!)
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061340338

I am not sure how many NELMS friends are interested, but I have begun a NELMS group on LinkedIn. This is a social networking site for professionals… your profile looks much like a resume. Sign up for an account and join the NELMS group.

Don’t forget… the first ever NELMS Tech Summitt is coming up in January and NELMS is accepting nominations for the Technology Award.

This is the last post until next year!– look for new posts in January.
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I will spend my break writing my dissertation!– I hope yours is more restful than mine will be.