Week 5: The Academic and Digital Gap Widens

After reading the article for the week, I crafted this response the focused on promoting student success through multimodal responses, using students skills beyond just paper books and promoting critical, thoughtful and direct instruction of apps in the classroom.  Then I deleted it.  I took my hard work and hit the delete button.  This week's post is for my students.  The kids that test every ounce of patience I have.  The kids that I love and think about beyond just the school hours.  This post is for them.

We are told all about how students are coming in with more computer skills.  We as teachers are supposed to use them and build these amazing things that combine millions of standards into one.  I love the idea of that.  Every year I am so excited to see just how many more skills my students come to me with.  The truth is....the opposite it happening.  This year I have more students than ever that cannot log into the computer. They can't open a window, they don't know how to get to PBSkids.org.   We have student's that cannot use the iPad even when given direct instruction like Northrop & Killeen (2009) discussed.  We have practiced, stated the purpose and more than ever our students still insist there is a computer problem when they just typed their name in wrong.  I love how Northrop & Killeen (2009) discussed using the idea of gradual release, but when happens when we never can get to the independent practice?

When I was reading the article by Castek et al. (2009), I was very impressed by the amount of computer skills the middle school students had. They were able to navigate to pages they wanted, be critical thinkers about the information they were reading and explore the Internet in a useful and meaningful way they helped them access their classroom.  These are students who were able to produce work that was within the grade level expectations.  Is this a product of age, or of students getting a well rounded education at home in addition to school?

I know my students play video games.  Even though over half my class is reading below grade level we are consistently working on building computer skills as stated in Castek et al. (2009).  We get to go to the lab once a week.  As we are now over halfway through the school year we are still practicing the same skills.  We are stuck just like with the iPads in the teacher directed practice.  Students can learn skills in isolation but cannot transfer them to another website.  They shut down and get mad when after clicking on the same button 25 times it still doesn't do what they want.

My fear when reading these articles was that my students were getting left behind.  So many of my parents do not own a computer in their home.  They maybe have a tablet, but it is often broken.  While reading the article by Dalton & Grisham (2013), I could not help but fear the future.  Will we ever get to the place where we can retell a story using GarageBand from a character's perspective?  If we get there how long will it take?  What will I have to give up in my classroom to make this happen?  I love the idea of multimodal responses to literature, they are engaging and build on a ton of skills.  What happens when the pre-skills are not there?  How much time do you commit to these projects while still teaching other important skills?

I feel lost and fearful for the future when I read about all of these great things that students are doing in the classroom.  I am scared that not only are my student's low in academic areas, but they are now behind in the digital world.  How do we combat this issue?  Are other people feeling this way?  My students deserve the best education but it feels like an uphill battle. So much of what we read seems to bank of students being able to come into the classroom with skills.  Most of my students play a lot of video games on a gaming device.  Unfortunately, I have not seen this translate to great computer or tablet literacy. Am I missing an opportunity?  It sure feels like I am.  After reading these articles I searched for apps that could help my students.  Here is a website I found to be helpful.  I found the visual to be helpful because it allowed me to see where I can be developing skills beyond just a specific academic time.

Taken from: http://www.weareteachers.com/images/contest-images/six-traits-across-the-curriculum.jpg?sfvrsn=2

As this point I think a list of skills that are important to building computer literacy would be helpful.  This could then be something that we get to work with parents with in to promote these ideas in all aspects of students lives.

This week I was left with more questions and worries than answers.  I am okay with that, I truly believe that is part of teaching cycle of life.  I know I love technology and am so excited about the future.  I also know that I am scared that my student's are coming in lower and lower in regards to academic and digital skills.  This post is not my giving up, it is me stating what I know to be true and to be comfortable with putting it into words.  My students are more than test scores and I promise you I will not give up on them.  This issue of technology in schools is here to stay, but it instead of throwing things in blindly it is time to honest about what some schools are facing.  We are not saying no to technology, we are saying, HELP!  Show us how to fill in gaps, show us to how to combine standards and time manage technology.  We are saying help us use iPads in meaningful ways.  We are saying lets be a team of leaders to make sure all students succeed, not just the ones with technology at home.  Trust me, my kids are worth it.