Learning everything and anything about all kinds of communication tools available today, I can’t stop wondering what is really necessary for elementary students. What kind of communication tools is appropriate for my students? Do we really need to teach them how to use both, wikis and blogs? Do they actually need to know how to e-mail and send a text-message? Why do they need Facebbok and del.icio.us accounts?
Lots of questions and I have found just one answer. We don’t really need to teach our kids how to wiki and blog, how to e-mail or send a text-message, how to create a Facebook account or how to benefit from a del.icio.us account. Our students don’t need instructions on “how to use Web 2.0 applications”. They already know how! They have learned it at home, at the day care, at summer camp, or at the friend’s house. What they really need is just a little more engagement in the classroom which will allow them to use these communication tools. They need educators who are willing to show them what is outside of the box. They need educators who understand their language – language of digital natives. To accomplish this we need to educate our educators first. They don’t know the difference between wiki and blog. Some of them never sent a text message. How can we expect them to change their teaching styles over night? Well, we all know if there is a will, there is a way. I recommend a 3 Step program.
Step #1: Listen to your students
Step #2: Let them teach you (us)
Step #3: Teach them to think by giving them assignments that will bring their creativity out and enable them to use the communication tools native to them.
Tip: It is not a shame to have your student teach you. It is a shame not recognizing that you can learn from them.
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