Chapter 5 Reflection

Chapter 5: Understanding Youth and Digital Media

            Chapter 5 deals with understanding the current youth population and how digital media is a constant addition to their daily lives.  One startling statistic that the chapter states is that students on average spend nearly six and a half hours a day with some sort of digital media.  The chapter then goes on to discuss how teachers can use this information to adapt what they are doing in the classroom to foster the interests that students already have in digital media.  However, this is not an easy thing to do, due to the fact that the current U.S. education system is not prone to change very easily.  But the fact is that, we as educators must change the way that 21^st century learning occurs, teachers must try to understand the learners that they have in front of them.  Although, to understand the students addiction to digital media, the chapter outlines what digital media actually is.  With an understanding of digital media, we can then “discuss students’ participation with digital media including how they produce and distribute media and engage in appropriating, recirculating, archiving, and annotating media content in powerful new ways,” states the book on page 82. 

            Teachers must not be afraid to harness the power of digital media.  For instance, one example states that teachers believe that text messaging is a sloppy and rush version of written work, however, students do not use texting to master English, they use it for communicating and dealing with each other.  Students are using digital media to foster new relationships with peers in a way that previous generations have not seen before.  This fact fosters the idea that students can learn in new environments where peer-based learning, collaboration and creativity are highly valued.  In turn, students take more ownership of their work and get more out of it.  Peer based learning is a power thing, especially when students are allowed to use their comfortable working knowledge of digital media.  New forms of collaboration and communication are being generated everyday and they are great for integration into the classroom bringing in engaging, student-centered learning experiences. 

            Over the past year I began to look at my teaching practices and found that what I had been doing was simply not work with students.  Previously my policy with personal technology was to tell students to put it away and it became an ongoing problem in my classroom.  However, I began to do a little asking around and with more and more research I found ways to integrate the students natural abilities into my curriculum.  I began to add more technology-based applications of chemistry as well as letting students create and collaborate with each other on projects and assignments. 

            For one project in particular I asked students to make a video over a particular element or group of elements.  I was blown away at the quality and amount of time students put into work they found interesting and enjoyable.  These student groups seemed to management themselves and they held each group member accountable for the job they were assigned.

            I also found out that students are great teachers of their peers, partly due to the ways that they communicate with each other.  On twitter I follow a few of my students and I have seen that they have a system of communication with each other and remind each other when things are due and even answer each others questions about different classes.  While in class I have seen student that understand material teach other students in their group how to do very complex problems and have even heard students say after that “they explained it to me better than you Mr. Forester,” and my usual response is “great.”  I do not care where, when or how the learning is occurring, all I care about is that it is happening.  Happening with the help of new Digital media.