Teaching Digital Natives

 

   Marc Prensky’s thoughts on “digital natives” echoes Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, but in a more general sense. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy offers specific examples of apps and games via Kathy Schrock’s suggestions and based on a taxonomy pyramid, while Prensky’s thoughts are more generalized, offering a worldview theory about tech savvy students that utilize the internet, wikipedia, and various social media networking sites.

    Prensky’s views support Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy because he recognizes that modern 21st century students are digital natives, having grown up with technology, and who look at the world through a lens of modern technology, apps, and internet access. This is different compared to how current teachers view the world, as we are from an older generation that did not grow up with the same ubiquitous access to advanced technology. Therefore we, as teachers, need to learn to view the world as our students do, through their technology lens if we wish to educate them in the best way possible. If we wish to prepare our students for the 21st century, we need to equip them with 21st century skills. We can equip them with these skills by relying on and relating our need for technology in the classroom, to Bloom’s Updated Digital Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy has been an essential guide for teachers for years, and now the updated Digital Taxonomy is even more important if we wish to stay current in best practices for our students. Requesting new technology for our classrooms should be goal-oriented with respect to curriculum, matching the right tool for each different teaching exercise.

    It is necessary to break down how we utilize technology as teaching tools because different levels of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy will require the use of different computer apps as referenced in Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything. For example, a memory-focused exercise for students that uses spelling would require students to work with different educational apps than a creative exercise that uses digital painting.

Technology is a fundamental tool for learning that will quickly and constantly continue to change. The goal of teachers is to effectively utilize current and accessible technology to better teach students and to equip them with tools which facilitate their ability to learn and create. Overly focusing on a tool that will be obsolete in five years is far less useful than utilizing a technological tool to better teach a subject matter in a way students will respond positively towards. In other words, a narrow focused technology tool is less useful and quickly obsolete, while multiple, concept-focused technology tools are more useful and offer a broader knowledge base.

    Librarians have always utilized evolving data technology. Librarians have been data technology pioneers since the beginning of recorded history, utilizing   cuneiform tablets, papyrus scrolls, books and periodicals, microfilm, microfiche, CDs, DvDs, digital storage, and now the internet to store information. 21st century technology is advancing faster than ever before in accordance with Moore’s Law, and providing accessible information is fundamental to library science. Today this means digital information and technology in a variety of formats, as well as traditional books. Sorting through the vast numbers of apps, programs, programming languages, social media tools, etc., is an immensely valuable service to both educators and students.