Unit 1: Generational Divide

I found many points in Pensky's article intriguing. I liked the way Pensky labeled the two groups as "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants". These monikers helped me understand more readily where Pensky saw people. Using his logic, everything he says makes sense. It makes sense that is why the students do not seem to mix well with the teachers, because they speak two different languages. Although, isn't that what every generation says about the previous generation? At any rate, the idea of an "accent" was also interesting. I can quite readily apply that to my teaching with my middle school students. I am up on many of the "new" things but there are still some areas that I may come up short. Therefore exposing myself to be not that hip to my students. I also drew another connection between the Penske article and my students. Most of my students want to listen to music while they are completing other on-line tasks or assignments. My patented response is "No". Perhaps I am projecting my inability to do so on to my students. Something for me to think about. Another item I see in the article as well as my students would be the gaming scenario. My school district has many web-based educational applications and many of them look like games. They collect items and receive badges for their efforts. Fun. Using these types of interfaces works very well with the students at my school. We are a highly impoverished school and the school has had very low test scores for decades. Since last year we have been using many of these on-line applications and out scores are rising fast. I am not saying it is all due to education games but I do think there is merit in not educating students the same way we were educated simply because it was "good enough for us".
Reading the first article, Close to the Edge, I found myself getting confused with lingo and terminology. I actually had to force myself to slow down while I read so I could better work through what was being presented. I could not find much to attribute or discredit from this article. It was mainly based on a particular generation and what they are all about. There was one point, toward the end of the article, that I can readily attribute to my students. The article says that Generation Edge is not likely to "get on board" and is not very trusting. I have seen these two things play out in real time every day of school. The middle school students do not trust anyone, sometimes not even their own peers. They do not give respect easy. However, when the students in my middle school do decide you are worth it, they will do anything for you. They will defend you to other kids if need be. They are fiercely loyal, one thing the article failed to mention about Generation Edge.
The second article, Generation Edge: An Early Look at America's Youngest Generation, gave much of the same information/opinion that the first article did. There were a few new tidbits that I found to be very interesting. The fact that some research is beginning to show that Generation Edge may actually be able to create an actual relationship through a screen is amazing. The possibilities, right? Also, I agreed with the authors terminology of "switch tasking" instead of "multitasking". Switch tasking seems to make more sense. I have some students who do well as switch tasking but I have many others who really need to focus on one thing in order to be successful.
I am currently involved with TRIG, Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant. Our coach introduced us to these same videos a few months ago and the "Did you know?" videos are epic! I watched it again the other night and I was still able to get a sense of urgency from it. Very powerful. The video explaining social networking was also very educational.

Opps. Should have read ALL the directions before I pulled the trigger. My name is Matt Wettstein. I am married to my college sweetheart. We have three sons: 10 years old, 7 years old and a 5 month old. Our 5 month old has Down Syndrome so we are spending a lot of time educating ourselves on the various medical/cognitive differences that he may face. I graduated college with my undergraduate degree in 2008. I had another career before teaching, that career was in shipping/receiving. I enjoy working with my hands. I like to take things apart although I cannot always guarantee I will be able to put them back together. One of the reasons I am interested in this field is because I love technology and I see a great potential benefit to using technology in the classroom. Technology allows people to collaborate much more readily from one point to another. It also allows students to see, in real time, what goes on around the world. I am excited and a little apprehensive about my first year at WSU. Have a great night.

Hi world. This is my first blog post EVER. How am I doing?