TORONTO – Kids love using computers and gadgets in the classroom but the technology has not made them better learners, suggests a report released Wednesday.
The non-profit Media Awareness Network interviewed a small sample of plugged-in elementary and high school teachers from across Canada and found there’s work to be done to better incorporate technology into schools.
The report suggests many students aren’t really as good at using the Internet as it may seem. While it’s assumed today’s kids are quick to learn how to use computers, the authors found many students are great at social media or finding something to watch on YouTube but their digital skills end there.
Teachers reported that some of their kids had a hard time effectively using search engines like Google and weren’t able to consistently sort out valuable sources from the clutter on the web.
“Digital literacy is not about technical proficiency but about developing the critical thinking skills that are central to lifelong learning and citizenship,” the report states.
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“I don’t think students are all that Internet-savvy,” reported a high school teacher from the East Coast.
“They’re locked into using it in particular ways and don’t think outside the box.”
The finding wasn’t particularly surprising, said Matthew Johnson, director of education for the Media Awareness Network.
“It’s something we’ve seen before but this really underlined it. I always like to draw a distinction between literacy and fluency,” he explained.
“When we watch a young person sit down on the computer and open a dozen different screens and do a dozen different things at once, we’re really seeing (digital) fluency – the same fluency that lets a 10-year-old talk a mile a minute. But it doesn’t necessarily show genuine literacy, it doesn’t show they understand what they’re doing, it doesn’t even show necessarily that they’re skilled at what they’re doing.”
He said students don’t need technical training as much as they need to build critical thinking skills that will help shape their experiences in the digital world.
“In any provincial or territorial curriculum students are being asked to think critically, they’re being asked to learn how to recognize bias and misinformation, how to evaluate a source – we’re just not yet connecting that to the place where young people are actually doing their research, which is online,” Johnson said.
The report also criticizes policies that leave large chunks of the Internet blocked to students as a protective measure. Some teachers said their schools had blocked YouTube or social networking sites, which prevented them from trying a different teaching approach with their students.
“Children do not learn to make good choices by being told what to do and follow instructions,” one teacher is quoted as saying. “And, unfortunately, they have to be given the opportunity to make bad choices as often as good choices.”
Johnson said what he found most interesting in the report was the suggestion that older teachers have better embraced technology in the classroom.
“Obviously we expect younger teachers to be more comfortable with the technology and I think what this shows is really that how skilled and confident a teacher is is more important than how familiar they are with digital technology.”
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On the web: Media Awareness Network report – http://bit.ly/zKcD3o
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