Here is a wonderful article by Dale Spender that I found in the Sydney Morning Herald this week. It talks about the changes taking place in our schools and while Spender’s work has always been unashamedly pro technology for education, it’s nice to see a piece like this being printed in the mainstream media. We certainly need to be having this discussion.
The full article can be found here, but here is a snippet..
Contrast this with the confident “digital natives” who are now the students in our schools. These are the children of the information age for whom the screen, not the page, comes first. Far from being passive recipients of existing knowledge, digi-kids have learnt by doing – by trial and error, and problem solving. It is not the right answer that they want; it is the right question they are after as they fearlessly try any of the new gadgets or applications. They are completely at ease with computers and the internet, and with accessing, creating and distributing ideas and information.
The members of the digital generation are also physically active and often noisy as they collaborate, send messages, do podcasts and wait for replies (or fan mail). The youngest of them coolly click the mouse to search out the Wiggles and solve puzzles and problems; they create new words and signs, and scan their screens seeking friends, experiences – and information.
Yes Dale, that is the point… that’s the point exactly. Thanks for the article.
