Blog #2 Baby George

 

                                                How my OST kiddos love learning! 

"Have I been taking chances? Have I actually been putting myself out on the line and figuring out who I am and what I am going to do? " 

What really struck me, while listening to this TED Talk is when Dr. Michael Wesch admitted that he had gotten too comfortable and actually stopped learning. He admits that he did not teach in "the real world" and that his classroom teach was designed to "dump information into the heads" of his students. This reminds me of so many teachers I've seen and worked with in districts across Rhode Island who just don't get it! They are jaded and grumpy and who do not teach with "care". Everytime I hear a teacher as their student "What is wrong with you?" or blatantly ignore a students who raising their hand in the air, vigorously needing to ask a question as if their life depends on it only to be ignore or to be shouted at "What?!?" It makes me think that that teacher doesn't even enjoy learning, so how could they expect their students to? 

So then he decided to challenge himself and change things up, he decided to start drawing. He started to create animations all about illustrating what he past students learning and what mattered to them, from his classes. One of the stories he shared was a student who said that the class taught him more than to how just to make a living, it taught him how to build a life worth living! (I'm crying!)  Through these stories, Dr. Wesch decides to redesign his course, scaffolding it with plateaus and supports and help from one another to make sure that everyone learns from the class and completes the final project only to find out that the final project was really themselves  * This reminds me SO MUCH of the way YDev is structured and my experience in the MA program <3*

For myself, as a Youth Worker in non-traditional educational spaces, I always knew that systematic classroom teaching was never something I wanted to be a part of because I knew that was not the way I learned, so I did not want to teach my students that way. I think through my career in Out of School Time programs these themes of learning that Dr. Wesch brings up about "real learning" and "loving yourself" enough to get up and try again, has always resonated with me when teaching youth. Its the hands-on experiential learning that should be valued by teachers, and the relationships you build with others to support that learning and the building of you "real life" in the "real" world! 

Blog # 1- Prensky, Boyd and Digital Natives

 

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala 

* Disclaimer: Firstly I would like to begin this blog post by saying that I do not believe in the deficit language of using terms like "native" and "immigrant" to describes one's ability to be digitally literate- as someone who is a "naturalized" citizen to the US and who plagued by discerning looks from customs agents when crossing the border coming home from traveling- the second I see their eyes land on the work "Russia" on my passport I tense- all the while knowing that I do not present as an immigrant to this country. These descriptive terms initially bring up from my a resentment of the fact that they equate "Native" and "literte" to be synonymous- because I know that in all my visits to other countries, i've meet countless children who, although born in that country and speak the dialect, were never taught to read or write in their native language. I understand this language to be harmful and hurtful and a misrepresentation of the youth it is meant to describe.*

In my opinion Boyd was right about Pensky, and Pensky was right about the examples he described of people who are "digital immigrants" and their "accents" (ugh, I hate that metaphor). Boyd rightfully describes Pensky's digital narratives rhetoric as "worse than inaccurate: it is dangerous." Boyd explanation that accessibility to technology , while an important start, it not enough to create fully educated and literate digital natives. 

I've seen Penksy's theory of a digital immigrant illustrated many times in my various workplaces by older, and more senior staffers than I. Much of the leadership that I have worked under throughout my career in non-profits had not been born into a time when they internet was utilized and programs that I was taught in grade school like Excel and Word, they took introductory courses on at the local community college or at in-office professional development trainings. Now in 2022- year past the age of retirement, theses senior "leaders" are leading these orgs into the ground with their ineffective business practices, their inefficient meetings, their unclear emails, their convoluted email practices, their paper planners, their inability to convert  a PDF to a JPEG and yes, oh yes, their CONSTANT PRINTING OF EMAILS!!!! (I am traumatized daily by seeing how many trees my supervisor kills daily to print out email chains to then stack on her desk to collect dust....) I am then struck by how unwilling these digital immigrants are, to become digitally literate- to change the way they do things, or to take a step back and allow staff who are digitally literate post on social media or change that paper document into a Google form. 

While I think that Pensky got the "digital immigrant" descriptors right, then I reflect on what he theorized about the "digital natives". I think about how yes our youth understand "intuitively" how to use an iphone, which buttons to press, which ways to  swipe, however I agree with Boyd in that this is a passive understanding and that this does not necessarily mean that they are active and engaged in understanding with the technology that they are using. I instantly think of my partner- a middle class white male, a "techie" who always has to have the latest iPhone and Apple watch, who constantly watching videos and reviews about the newest tech products, who is a New England Tech grad and understands how to put technology together, from a truck engine to a computer drive, to a gaming device. He is who I think of a a digital native, because besides just being born into the accessibility of their technology, he is also privileged enough to have the money to purchase the latest and greatest, and the luxury of time to learn about it as a hobby and utilized it as a career path.  

I compare my "techie" partner to the youth i've worked with who Pensky would also describe as "digital natives" I think about all the youth who were given Chrome books throughout the pandemic and now have unlimited accesses to all the media and all the influence that goes along with it. As we had briefly  mentioned in class yesterday- these youth now have access to consume everything, without even knowing what it is. That level of discernment is up to we as educators, to teach the youth we work with. It goes beyond just showing them how to use a Canva or post a Youtube video, but rather how to understand what they are seeing, reading or watching, how to read the comments, how to see other peoples opions and not to just listen to the most popular influencer or just to follow someone because they are verified on Twitter. 

Introduction to T

Hey, I'm Tanya....

A 20-something, originally born in Moscow, Russia, adopted to a family in MA when I was 4 and now a Rhode Island transplant. I've worked in non-traditional educational spaces for the past 15 year, starting at COZ in Pawtucket, then as a respite care-giver for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, then as an educator for an Environmental non-profit in New Bedford, then as a 21st Century Director for the Y in lower-South Prov and currently as a Director for Special Olympics Rhode Island. I am also a recent graduate from the Youth Development Master’s program! My educational journey has taken me all across the map and my current YDev ideology is a mix of “Positive Youth Development” and “Social Justice Youth Development” founded, but progressing from, a constructivist paradigm. I strive to keep my work youth-centered and youth-led.

 

Besides my youth work, I love anything and everything outdoorsy- hiking (NH48, 52WAV) camping, running and gardening. I consume a lot of different types of media, but I would have to say the form I enjoy the most is Instagram- I love taking pictures, creating reels and just capturing fleeting moments of beauty in the natural world. I’m hoping to feature some of my photos throughout these posts!