10th December 2015

It's been a while since I've contributed to this blog, work has been really frantic so I just haven't had the time, but that will stop tomorrow around 4pm when I leave work and commence my summer holidays.  I've been preparing for the first assignment, I've read the Digital Education Advisory Group article and I think I have worked out my position on BYOD topic but need to read a bit more widely.  I've chosen the unit of work and am starting to think about the 8 technology resources I will include.

Today I read the two articles - "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" by Marc Prensky (2001) and the Open university research report reputing his hypothesis that there is a generational separation of brain processes between young and older people.  So am I a digital native or immigrant?  Given my age there is no way I could be regarded as a "Digital Native", I was educated in the 1970's - 1980's with minimal technology,  and I still do some of the things that Prensky says are typical of a "Digital Immigrant" - I sometimes print emails and I only use my mobile phone for making and taking calls (I do take photos with it sometimes but that's about it).

 I have been teaching adult migrants since 1989 so the whole internet / digital revolution has taken place around me and I've had to learn and adapt quickly.  Several years ago I did some courses in networking and taught in the IT section for a short time - TAFE actually ran a program in 2001 to train  general education teachers in IT networking subjects as they figured we were better communicators than the IT geeks from industry.  I definintely felt intimidated by many of the students who had far more technological knowledge than me, they could be described as "Digital Natives",  if they asked me questions outside the lesson plan I was stumped.  So I moved away from that area, back to the English language classroom where I am comfortable.  Here most of my students are less digitally competent than me (not all though I've had a few Russian systems analysists and the like) so it's one Digital Immigrant teaching to more recent Digital Immigrants.  I have noticed a shift lately though, the vast majority of students have mobile devices such as smart phones and use them widely in class to support their learning.  Last week we ran an information session to enrol over 100 students in some free courses for next year, each student needed to sit at a computer and complete the process online,  the rooms we were in had around18 computers each so students had to wait, I was surprised to turn around and see a large group of them whip out their mobile phones, log in and complete the process on their phone.  Now I didn't think of that so I must be a Digital Immigrant!