Recently someone remarked about digital natives being goal oriented which caught me off guard. I’m not sure about ‘goal’ oriented. I think this is why there is a disconnect between teachers and students today. Digital immigrants are ‘work’ oriented but this new generation of digital natives is ‘play’ oriented. If teachers emphasize education’s goal is to make productive and useful ‘workers’, then students don’t see the relevance because the jobs they will have in the future, have not yet been created (at least that’s what we’ve been telling them).
The immigrants’ world was well defined with clear expectations. The natives’ world is boundaryLESS and obscure. For this reason, they play. What else can they do?
I believe the best teaching strategies create a collaborative atmosphere and multi-dimensional, interactive platform where digital natives can thrive. However, this does not guarantee we will ‘connect’ with students. The connection will be made when we as teachers convey clearly that we are fellow-explorers ‘with’ them helping them to develop the skills of adaptability and creativity they will need to fabricate their future much better than previous generations have done.
We do not blame the previous generations. They did what they could with what they had. But we DO expect this next generation to learn from our mistakes and build their future responsibly. They can play today because we provide a safe haven for them. But when they are on their own, survival is not a game. If we visionize them accordingly, I believe they will accept the challenge and rise to the occasion. (posted 6/6/09)
