Digital Natives

At my placement school, Mr. M’s 6^th period English class is currently in the midst of a unit on persuasive argument. The work in this unit involves what one might expect: discussions about current events, lessons on logical reasoning and argumentation, and examining how arguments are developed in literary works. But Mr. M is also including two documentaries into this unit. As he showed the documentary “Food Inc” in class one day, I was amazed to watch the students sit in rapt attention as the narrator addressed complex and detailed facts about food security. They took copious notes (note taking is usually labored and requires much cueing) and remembered a great amount as they were discussing the topic two days later. I realized that these students are part of a digital age and are used to consuming information in television, movies, and online. No wonder they get so bored after spending an hour reading a text with no pictures or music! Not to say that learning to read and comprehend the written word isn’t important (in fact, they will probably have to use this skill in their careers someday) but it was so interesting to see S.M. Sweeny’s article, “Writing for the Instant Messaging and Text Messaging Generation: Using New Literacies to Support Writing Instruction” play out in a real classroom. If watching these documentaries gets the students interested in analyzing arguments and begin writing their own persuasive essays, then it is a great example of how to use multimedia to support writing instruction.

 

In an effort to include my own mixed media (in a form that is perhaps more interesting and exciting than simple written form), I have included a video on teens and technology. 

One thing I would like to point out is when the researcher states that students may be required in their future jobs to be good at multitasking (if, say, they become teachers…) but will this strength mean they will struggle to focus on just one thing? 

As educators who are focusing on helping our students develop transferable skills that will be useful in their lives past high school, this is an important point to consider when incorporating technology in the classroom.