I am currently participating in a book study around the text "Bold School" by Weston Kieschnick. Recently I came across a quote that really stuck out to me. It said, " While these same employees average 35 hours per week on digital media, they're honing only low-level skills that don't relate to high-level skills needed at work." This is in regards to a 2015 study by Schaffhauser that showed nearly 60% of millennial employees (the first to have grown up on digital technologies) couldn't complete basic tasks. While this was based on the work force, it got me thinking about the students in our classrooms. For some students, it is likely that they may be spending 35 hours per week on digital media. With this in mind, some may feel like because they are surrounded by technology and use it frequently that they will know how to use it in the classroom. However, in many cases this is not true. Students are learning to use technology for things that they enjoy, rather than always using it for educational purposes.
I am currently participating in a book study around the text "Bold School" by Weston Kieschnick. Recently I came across a quote that really stuck out to me. It said, " While these same employees average 35 hours per week on digital media, they're honing only low-level skills that don't relate to high-level skills needed at work." This is in regards to a 2015 study by Schaffhauser that showed nearly 60% of millennial employees (the first to have grown up on digital technologies) couldn't complete basic tasks. While this was based on the work force, it got me thinking about the students in our classrooms. For some students, it is likely that they may be spending 35 hours per week on digital media. With this in mind, some may feel like because they are surrounded by technology and use it frequently that they will know how to use it in the classroom. However, in many cases this is not true. Students are learning to use technology for things that they enjoy, rather than always using it for educational purposes.
While both purposes involve technology, they also involve very different skills. If we want our students to be successful both in our classrooms, and long after they leave our classrooms, we must help them to learn the skills that they will need when entering the work-force. These skills will look different and the way that they use them will look very different. This is especially true when we are referring to communication. The way that students interact with friends and peers outside of school and on social media, is probably very different than the way they interact in your classrooms. It will also be different than the way they are expected to interact in the work force. To help students learn the expectations centered around communication in the work-force as well as in educational settings, we can incorporate different strategies into our pre-existing lessons that will allow us to model, and coach students when learning these new skills. Below you will find a few ideas to help provide opportunities that will allow students to learn and practice these life-long skills.
While both purposes involve technology, they also involve very different skills. If we want our students to be successful both in our classrooms, and long after they leave our classrooms, we must help them to learn the skills that they will need when entering the work-force. These skills will look different and the way that they use them will look very different. This is especially true when we are referring to communication. The way that students interact with friends and peers outside of school and on social media, is probably very different than the way they interact in your classrooms. It will also be different than the way they are expected to interact in the work force. To help students learn the expectations centered around communication in the work-force as well as in educational settings, we can incorporate different strategies into our pre-existing lessons that will allow us to model, and coach students when learning these new skills. Below you will find a few ideas to help provide opportunities that will allow students to learn and practice these life-long skills.
