Digital Natives Wield Spotify, Not Spears

“My niece, at “almost 13 years old, arrives home from school and turns on the TV and begins to text message with her Twitter account. While doing this, she turns on her laptop computer and opens her Facebook account to see which of her special friends are in communication. Many of these digital contacts are the same adolescents she just spent the day with in school. Using a free hand, she opens her backpack and pulls out homework that is soon spread over the open areas of the floor for consideration and prioritization. She lives in a completely digital world and has never “dialed a phone”, wound a clock or wristwatch, listened to an LP, or even watched a black-and-white TV. She is talking virtual German language lessons over the computer and conducting library research online for her term papers. 

My niece’s mother worries that she must learn to slow down and focus attention to tasks that are linear in nature. Reading a textbook, listening and following logic of the presentation of her teachers-these are skills vital to success in college and later in the real world of work.”

Prompt: Is it possible that this generation of teenagers has cognitive abilities that older generations lack? Or do these young people simply lack an ability to focus and concentrate? 

I often joke that we will see rapid evolutionary changes in the shape of our fingertips ... the better to tap out texts on our smartphone screens.

There is data about the impact of technology on the cognitive abilities of today's youth, as demonstrated by the 2001 guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommending prohibiting screen time for children under age two, and research continues to accumulate. In fact, next week I am hosting a Parent University series for families at my charter school titled, "Raising Digital Natives". Here is the link to the handouts from the same workshop we held in fall 2010. Just click on the "Digital Natives" PDF.

Rather than dismissing this generation as attention handicapped, I think it is our job as parents and professionals to keep up, stay informed, monitor, and continue to research this important sociological revolution we are living through. I also think students still interact in the world in a linear fashion in plenty of ways, such as watching a movie or a TV show, listening to a song, or sitting down to a meal with the family or in a restaurant.

Prompt Make a list of the ways you believe the role of school counselors and school psychologists is being changed by new technologies. 

We are now website administrators and authors

Gatekeepers: We can find out if there is an app for that... to help students academically, socially etc.

We can use technology to communicate more effectively with families, for example, besides my making handouts available on the website from the Parent University series at my school, I could create a podcast. Of course, there are also our newsletters, delivered by email... and perhaps by twitter, facebook pages etc.

We need to review and revise social media guidelines for staff, and find how best to use a Facebook page, for example. 

I am interested to learn more about how the field of assessment is being impacted by technology.