ICT e-learning 2 reflections part A

Digital natives are those whose time is vastly spent on technology-related activities, so much so to the point that their lives can be considered to be pretty much revolved around technology. Their brain process and cognitive abilities are very much shaped by repeated exposure to video games and digital media that they come in contact with day in and day out. Albeit their much shorter attention span than previous generations, they are better able to visualize graphical representations, reason inductively, multi-task and respond to both expected/unexpected stimuli. With the much faster pace of life that comes with technology, digital natives tend not to slow down and reflect, which is crucial before meaningful learning actually takes place.

In my review, I have chosen to compare Virginia (http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-virginia-video) against a typical Singaporean secondary school student. There are some similarities I noticed between her and the latter, in that both spend quite a substantial amount of time on social networking websites such as Facebook, Youtube and even blogging while still keeping up with school commitments. I’m not too sure whether teachers actually teach their students how to blog or even create blogs for classroom discussions at that level here in Singapore though. One thing that struck me was that Virginia was already playing a role in educating the younger ones about cyberwellness at a young, tender age of 14, which is something I hardly see back home; or at least happens at a slightly older age. Like her, Singaporean youths need to learn to exercise self-control in internet usage lest it does more harm than good to them.

As teachers, we face very real challenges in capturing the attention of digital natives. To hold their attention it would be of great importance to vary our teaching pedagogies with ICT tools being incorporated into lessons. This would include choosing the right games (where appropriate) to use during lessons which would enhance the educational value for the students. For students to better make sense of what they are learning, it would be good to present the facts/theories to them in graphic form since digital natives learn better through visualizations. At the same time, it is of great importance that students are educated in cyberwellness since they use the internet for quite a fair amount of time and it can affect them negatively if certain boundaries aren’t drawn.