Walk into a High School classroom and observe: iPod wires dangling from the top of T-shirts – normally one thin wire and connecting pod dangling while the other lead is securely plugged into an ear. All the while some hands are busy under the table while seemingly listening to the teacher whilst occasionally glancing down giving the teacher a clue that heavy text messaging is taking place in his class. Long hair and hood’s galore draping the heads of many students, not because the air conditioning is set to too low but because they nicely hide the electronic inputs: ear pods, blue tooth ear pieces, and who knows what else. Observe the teacher calling their attention and telling them to turn off their iPods and take off anything attached to their ears – there is a massive groan in the classroom. The students moan, “...but Miss I hear you just fine. Can’t I just listen to my music too?” Or, “Please Mr. its no big deal we can do both…I also do better in class when I have my pods on!” The class is “wired” with or without physical wires. Electronic devices from the simple to the ultra sophisticated fill the classroom and they are not District property. All the signaling is occasionally punctuated with flashes from phones or digital cameras or a cute tune coming from someone’s iPhone all adding to a tumultuous digital scent. You have just observed the new phenomenon in today’s schools: our digital students. You also have just witnessed a culture clash of traditional teaching being needled by digital probes.
An awesome and poignant message regarding DIGITAL LEARNERS can be found at:
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