Digital Minds

While listening to the presentation about children growing up in a digital age, I was thinking about what students would need to be taught in order to help them succeed in our new world.  Clearly, as technology becomes cheaper and more pervasive, students will have no problem gaining access to powerful, Internet-ready computers (this is true even in poor American neighborhoors--see Generation M2, a 2010 report by the Kaiser Family foundation).

The challenge, therefore, is to help children make the best use of these tools.  Current use of technology by young people focuses mainly on socializing and media-consumption.  Children are mainly using computers to talk to friends, watch YouTube videos, and play games, but they are not typically using technology to create their own unique media.  Although students' prefered use of technology is not all bad, it is arguably the role of teachers and parents to encourage students to use computers in more creative ways.  When students use computers for the purpose of blogging, video creation, podcasting, animation, design, and programming, there is greater chance that they will be developing the information, media, and technology skills required for success in the 21st century.

Special needs students should also be expected, as much as possible, to create their own media in the classroom.  Special needs students, just like their reguarly developing peers, are growing up in a digital world.  They see digital media all around them.  The excitement generated by learning how to contribute to this new world--as opposed to simply observing it--is something that special needs students need to experience.