Importance+for+Teachers

Part of the issue presented in teaching Digital Natives about privacy is that they may not fully understand the whole scope of the problem. Parents of the Digital Natives understand the privacy issues a lot more than their children. Digital Immigrants are skeptical about social networks and many would rather purchase items from the stores rather than using their credit cards online. Conversely, Digital Natives love social networks and spend numerous hours on the internet, ipods, cell phones, and other technologies. The technology is not a foreign aspect in the lives of the Digital Natives and this makes the issue of privacy seem small in their eyes.

What does this new generation mean for teachers and their teaching methods in the classroom? It means that we as teachers must be up to date on the new technology. For the younger generation of teachers, this will be easier than the older generation. The younger generation of teachers grew up in the beginning stages of the new technology, so they can easily adjust to newer developments. The majority of teachers who grew up before the '80s are finding it difficult to adapt. This generation can be classified as Digital Immigrants. They have now been forced to move into a new era of technology and are having to teaching the more experienced Digital Natives.

But what can we do to ensure that the best learning is taking place in our classrooms?

- As we learn to communicate through the digital language with students, this may peak their interests. This doesn't mean we adapt the expected learning objectives. The material stays the same but we present it faster, with less step sequences, and with more random access. How do we do this? We can present material in conjunction with technology that may help heighten students' interest levels.
 * 1. Methods**

- It seems to some that there are now two types of content that can be delivered in school. Legacy content includes reading, writing, arithmetic, and ideas of the past. This is essentially the traditional curriculum and is of course still important; however, the students of today have a hard time relating to it. The second type of content is future based and is largely focused on digital technology. While this still includes ethics, politics, and languages just like legacy content, it also dips into new software, hardware, robots, and such. The future based content is extremely appealing to students today but is likely overwhelming to the Digital Immigrants who have to teach it. This is an area where the student may know more about the subject than the teacher!
 * 2. Content**

As the famous saying goes "You can't teach old dogs new tricks". Digital Immigrants are at a major disadvantage when it comes to teaching this new generation. Current students quite possibly know more about the technology and may have less interest in school than many previous generations.

Other Pages: Home, Digital Natives, In an Effective Classroom with Technology, Lesson Plan with ICT, My Thoughts, Works Citied