Prensky’s belief that our students are “Digital Natives” and that they learn differently from those of us who are teaching them is well supported by Bloom’s and Kathy Schrock’s guide. The revisions to Bloom’s Taxonomy show that there are changes going on in our world and that our teaching styles and methods need to support these changes. In Kathy Schrock’s guide she gives resources for teachers to resources at each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. These resources are for all different types of digital platforms that students could use.
Students have grown up in a different world than their teachers and librarians did, and that is something that needs to be understood. As Prensky mentions in his Digital Natives discussion students of today learn more from group projects and from hands on experiments than from traditional lectures. This past school year I taught fifth grade English Language Arts and Social Studies. During the year there were times when my students had the opportunity to work on group projects and guide themselves, with minimal input from me. Looking at assessment data between items that students had the opportunity to work in group and figure things out for themselves and those that they did not, the ones where they worked in groups and in their own ways were more successful. Knowing our students and they ways that they learn will lead them to be more successful in the future.
Students in our classrooms today use technology everyday, more than we can imagine. This is changing how students view the world and how they process information. This is important for teachers and librarians to understand so that we can best understand how to help our students as well as make them as successful as possible. Something that would be interesting for teachers and librarians to look at is the Mindset list. This list will let educators know how these students have grown up and what experiences they have had in their lives. This information will make it where educators know the students prior knowledge as well as what they are drawing on when they are in class. Knowing this information will help educators know how best to present information to their students in order to help their students be as successful as they possibly can.
While technology is a large part of our society today, that does not mean that it is the end all be all, or that it is a foundation for our learning, it is just one of the tools that educators can use to present information. This is something that many people need to understand when bringing technology into the classroom, you are not trying to build all of the curriculum on these technology pieces, but using them to support the learning going on in our classrooms. These ideas and resources, from Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything to the Mindset list and Bloom’s Taxonomy, can help to explain the role of technology in our classrooms, libraries, and schools.
Why should librarians care? We should care about this information because we are still teachers, but the library is our classroom. We are still teaching students, just in a different area of the school. Many times the librarian is responsible for training and supporting teachers in technology, so having this information is crucial for the success in these endeavors.
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Wonderful post. I truly liked your final thoughts...Librarians are still teachers. We are still responsible for educating the minds of those students we interact with by using various mediums to achieve that goal.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we as librarians will need to support our teachers in helping them use technology with their students and especially those teachers who are uncomfortable with technology.
ReplyDeleteNaomi,
ReplyDeleteYou hit a point when you mentioned students use technology in a daily basis and see the world in how they process information. It is an opportunity we as teachers and librarians can use to learn from them and implement to engage them in reading and learning.
Naomi,
ReplyDeleteCollaboration in the classroom is important. On my campus, three years ago we started implementing CIF strategies from kinder- 6th grade. In the beginning, students were a little hesitant, but as they got use to it, it came much easier to them. I can see the difference between the first year of implementing it to tiday. I believe that students that have the opportunity to work in groups, share their ideas, have discussions, and collaborate with each other have a develop a deeper learning.