21st Century Digital Boy
“I can't believe it, the way you look sometimes
Like a trampled flag on a city street, oh yeah
And I don't want it, the things you're offering me
Symbolized bar code, quick ID, oh yeah
[Chorus:]
See I'm a 21st century digital boy
I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys
My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual
My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual
Ain't life a mystery?”
Like a trampled flag on a city street, oh yeah
And I don't want it, the things you're offering me
Symbolized bar code, quick ID, oh yeah
[Chorus:]
See I'm a 21st century digital boy
I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys
My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual
My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual
Ain't life a mystery?”
-Brett Gurewitz – 21st Century Digital Boy
Like it or not PLN’s, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Web 2.0 and other social networking sites and programs are here to stay. After reading this week’s articles I continually thought about the song 21st Century Digital Boy by the band Bad Religion. It is a satirical look on the issues of technology facing our youth today. It had me reflect on whether or not I use technology effectively in my classroom. The verdict: no. It is not due to a lack of want, I do believe that we are on the cusp of an educational revolution, as many of this week’s authors suggest but as an educator how do I teach my students to properly use these tools if I too feel extremely overwhelmed? Who is going to educate me? I guess this is why I am taking this class.
I do believe that the majority of today’s classrooms lack the creative outlet craved (and demanded) by the 21st century learner and I hope to change this. I am intrigued by the innovation of social networking sites to bring together people of similar interests in order to collaborate on problems, share ideas and evaluate potential solutions to these problems. The question is how do we bring this into the classroom? What does this look like? What does the 21st century school and classroom look like? Will we require students to attend school anymore? How do we properly assess these students? Do we need to eliminate high-stakes and standardized exams in order to achieve an educated populace and not just good test-takers? These are just some of the questions that will surely be discussed in the upcoming weeks as I embark on my quest to become a “21st Century Digital Boy.”
I love the idea of eliminating "standardized" testing as we are demanding that our learners become more and more non-standardized as consumers of information. I think the idea does throw a monkey-wrench into the current thinking of education and education reform going on right now.
ReplyDeleteMy current school district is so suspicious of technology and non-standardized students and teachers. Everything under the sun is blocked by filters run out of central office. YouTube, embedded YouTube in other websites, twitter, blogger blogs, FaceBook, you name it. I had to set up a Posterous blog because I can't access Blogger at school which would make it pointless to use during the school year. And I am going to hazard a guess that Posterous might get blocked during the school year. We have also had problems with wikis being blocked. The district is so scared to cede control and creativity to teachers and students. I would say that the district is concerned about students introducing viruses and inappropriately using technology. But I know better, they are more concerned with staff. Especially with the blogs. There has been open hostility between the teaching staff and central admin and school based admin here, and it has been waged largely on blogs and comments. Unfortunately, I m afraid that all of this pettiness between adults is going to affect my ability to fully utilize new technologies for the benefit of my students.
Love the Bad Religion reference! You bring up an excellent point about testing. We know that using these collaborative tools are truly preparing our students for the workplace of the 21st century were problem solving, collaboration, and global networking rule. Yet our schools are bogged down by this type of testing that I feel is a relic of the industrial age. How do we create valid assessments of such "abstract" ideas?
ReplyDeleteScinerd
ReplyDeleteI am fortunate that my district does not have many blocks on different sites. I have access to Youtube, Blogger, twitter - most of our schools in the district have a Twitter account that we post messages such as exam schedules. However, social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, etc. are blocked buit with the advent of Smartphones they still acccess these at school. It is really unfortunate that there is not some progressive dialogue between staff and admin, after all are we not all in this together?
Kristian
Mrs. Tabor
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bad Religion are one of my favourites. You bring up a good point, how do we assess these "abstract" ideas? I think one answer is to collaboratively create (through our PLN's?) quality performance assessments that assess students finished products.