Generational Gaps

In response to this question based on readings about generational gaps I can both agree and disagree that there is a difference in the way things are taught and learned today. But I feel that this is true not because kids today process information differently as was suggested by Prensky (pg. 1) but because they are given and must present information differently. Students can find information very quickly if they are given the correct tools and the know how to find that information but so can so-called digital immigrants. I think Prensky is really making large generalizations about the difference in generations. McKenzie (pg. 4) discusses the ways in which people will feel part of a generation and that it cannot simply be based on age alone. I think this is so important because there are definitely teachers who know more about technology than their students and prove it with their lessons.

As a librarian, I am constantly trying to get my students to use databases rather than Google to find information, but it isn't easy. I think I would have fewer problems with their wanting to Google everything if they knew how to do it properly. If they could use key words to search and know use the lessons on website evaluation that they are taught correctly, it would be an effective method of searching. But they do not search properly for the most part. I don't think it is because they process information differently, but because they do not have the patience to actually read what they are seeing and take it in. The main problem I see with all the new technologies students have is that the technology is there, with them, at all times. They never have to wait for an answer, so when it comes to a paper that needs 5 sources, they just pick the first 5 rather than finding what they really need.

However, if a colleague were to talk to me about how they cannot connect with their students because of the generation gap, I might suggest that they are the ones who need to learn a new style of teaching rather than convincing the students that they are not able to learn if they use the methods they grew up with. There is no way that a teacher would look back at how things were taught a hundred years ago or even twenty years ago and think that nothing needed to change. There are so many different teaching methods out there to choose from that we couldn't possibly all agree on one way to teach, with or without technology.

If we think about something like times tables in math, why wouldn't we make it as easy as possible if a new method is better and students learn better from it. Even a little trick like the 9 times tables:

1 x 9 =  9
2 x 9= 18
3 x 9 =27
4 x 9 =36
5 x 9 =45
6 x 9= 54
7 x 9 =63
8 x 9 =72
9 x 9 =81
10 x 9=90

The numbers in the ones column go from 9 down to zero and the tens column goes from zero up to 9. This is a very simple way to show students a shortcut (and I know people who ask why no one taught them this as a student, even now). This has nothing to do with technology, but it's the same principal; if there is a faster, easier way, learn how to teach it. And that's the bottom line.