Prensky & Boyd 2

• What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky?  What do you hear each of them saying about who youth are? Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology?

I can make a connection to Prensky's Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants. I do feel pretty comfortable using technology both at home and as a teaching tool with my students. As I began this assignment, I reached for my old fashioned paper and pen to take notes while watching the assigned videos, slide decks, and reading. I just finished a 15 month cohort and wanted so badly to just set up my device and take notes electronically. I didn't feel comfortable using that method. I am not a speed typer and felt more assured I wouldn't miss something of importance by writing on paper. This makes me a Digital Immigrant, hands down.

        When teaching in the classroom, I have a Smartboard we use and we are one to one with chromebooks. We had a Google classroom already set up and in use when March 13 got here. We used quite a few sites daily for Reading (MyLexia) and Math (Zearn) to reinforce skills taught during whole group instruction or skills missing. Students are familiar with using Google Slides but I had to show them docs when Distance Learning started. I would rate myself as a Techno-traditionalist right now, with the hopes of becoming a Techno-constructivist within the next school year.  Scott Noon's 4 Tier Model on Technology          

  According to Boyd (2015, p.177) whether in school or in informal settings, youth need opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge to engage with technology effectively and meaningfully. I recall back when we were in school, the librarian told me that quite a few of my students don't know the difference between safe sites
and fraudulent sites. It is my responsibility as a teacher to educate my students to become critical thinkers and to question what they see on the screen, is this source credible? My librarian was working on this skill before we started Distance Learning.