Mike Wesch: Ted Talk

What does Mike Wesch believe about how students learn? 

How does he act on those beliefs?

"I had become comfortable and I had stopped learning" (Wesch, 2016). 

Through Mike Wesch's study he found many students felt a disconnection between classes and their life. From his experiences, he found that teachers would complain about the same issues that students had.

His son George opened his eyes about the purpose and motivation of learning. 

For Mike, real learning is about the questions that you can build from the class. The questions that push you to grow, questions that you can take outside of the classroom. He decided to dig deeper, by holding one on one DEEP conversations daily with his students. The conversations are based on these three questions:

1. Who am I?
2. What am I going to do?
3. Am I going to make it?

Mike Wesch changed his teaching so that he could give his students the learning experiences they needed so that they had the resources to get through the challenges in life. Dr. Wesch saw this in his son George. Baby George is shown love and compassion by his parents, so in return he learned to love himself enough to give the stairs another chance, every time. 

He brought that experience into the classroom, but tuning into the special capabilities of all of our students. Building a connection, to truly know who our students are and using that to help build their learning. This real learning is more than a letter or a number grade on a state test. This real learning is a recurring action, that will lead the student to their ultimate success. 

Watch the Ted Talk Here!

"Digital Native"

What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky?  Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology?

When Pensky draws this line between generations as Digital native and digital immigrants he makes numerous assumptions about youth. He says that young people are able to access and process at the same times, usually because webpages have multiple and random access points to gather information. Digital "natives' use graphics first and rely on them to gain comprehension or new knowledge. According to him, they also see no separation between the real world and the online world, it's all one world for them.

            Becoming literate in a networked age requires hard work, regardless of age (Boyd, 2014). 

 

Boyd argues that the terms digital native and digital immigrant comes with serious consequences. He argues that using the terminology of native vs immigrant hold historic context. Is the intent to destroy the youth's technology practices or are we celebrating their assumed tech savviness? An assumption is made that all youth come into school with the knowledge of working a computer. However, this does not mean that youth has the tools to think critically about online content. 

"Digital Native" ??

I would side with Boyd in this argument. I think the access to technology at a young age is a privilege and even a political issue. In my opinion, it would be inaccurate to say that children are now born with the capabilities to flawlessly maneuver through technology. I also agree that as educators, for me especially in a low- income community, it is important to advocated for access to technology for my students. It is even more important to then push for changes in curriculum so that educators can help the youth in increasing their digital competencies. 

References:

Bogad,L. (2020, June 28). Prensky Slide Deck. https://www.loom.com/share/6b79f5da2a2741a8b04004190473c31a

Boyd, D. (2014). It's Complicated. Yale University Press 

Zeysen. (2017, April 4). Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants. https://zeysen.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/digital-natives-vs-digital-immigrants/

Introduction

Hi! I am Priscilla Cortez. I teach third grade at Harry Kizirian in Providence, RI. I taught for six years in the Providence School Department. I graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2014 with a major in Elementary Edu and Child Psychology. I am a Proud Latina. My parents are Dominican and Puerto Rican. I am bilingual and was born and raised in Providence RI. I have a lot of respect for my students and the community that I serve because it is the community that I came from. 

I love to travel to new places and experience new cultures. 

Every summer I work at the YMCA in Providence. This summer it will be distance learning during the Y program. But my husband and I are tackling some home projects during the summer time! (that should be fun)! 

Here are some projects I HOPE to accomplish around the house: 

Refinishing Breakfast Table

Deck Shade Solution

Basement Stairs Makeover