Anna Debenham: The Digital Native -- Update 2011

The current model of teaching students using a standardised system with a single suite of software on a desktop computer is no longer justifiable. The "digital native" has access to an array of technology on various platforms, which are rarely allowed within school gates despite their relevancy and educational potential.

Network lock-downs and zealous firewalls in schools also widen the chasm between the classroom and reality. Is this condemning a generation to be purely consumers of technology rather than creators?

(Bio: Anna is a freelance front-end developer based in Brighton, doing work with Mozilla on a project called Hackasaurus that builds web development learning tools for kids. She also runs a community called Scrunchup for young designers and developers.)

Copyright © 2011, Naklab Ltd. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• anna debenham
• digital native
• education
• uk
• england
• technology
• update 2011

[airventmedia]

Is this condemning a generation to be purely consumers of technology rather than creators?

This is a very true question and very relevant today. With devices being pushed out left right and centre allowing pupils to consume technology games apps = information at an overwhelming rate but what are they doing with this info or are they even being taught how to make this type of information themselves.

[bqdfantasy]

I completely agree. I know in my ICT lessons, it seems that we're learning how to do the same things on Office year after year after year... We tend to get encouraged to use Macromedia Dreamweaver to create websites rather than learning even the slightest bit of HTML/CSS, and everyone uses tables in Dreamweaver because that was how we were taught way back in Year 7. I still remember when you guys visited our school and Web X-Ray Goggles didn't work on our school's computers...