Hello!
While reading the articles this week, I considered some of
the characteristics of students today. Other than completing my student
teaching 3 years ago, I have not taught in a school environment, but I have
helped teach a class of 7th to 12th grade girls at my
church for several years. When I first began teaching the girls at my church, I
was 18, and I was only a few months older than some of the oldest girls in the
group. I did not feel as though there were many differences between myself and
the older girls, since we were nearly the same age. As I continued teaching
(and I got older) as the younger girls moved up into my group, I could see more
differences in many areas.
I am part of the Millennial Generation and all of the girls
in the class now are part of the Edge Generation (born after 1995). These girls
are very comfortable with technology and as Prensky discusses “Digital
Natives”, these girls have grown up using technology all the time. It is a part
of their everyday lives. I have found that they are more engaged in lessons
that involve using technology as opposed to just having them read text from a
page. Even while doing my student teaching it was apparent that the students
were more interested in doing projects that allowed them to use the school Mac
books, or playing computer games, or watching videos and were easily
disinterested in reading from a text book.
I believe that there are generational differences that exist
and are apparent in the Edge Generation students of today, but with all of the
technology advances that have been made in schools and tools that are available
to teachers today, students can still be engaged. I think that technology has
become such a large part of everyone’s daily life, that it can be integrated
into lessons with a little effort and actively engage and interest students.
