Alicia's Adventures in Media

What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky (per our discussion in class and/or per the article above?)   Boyd's stance on "digital natives" The term "digital natives" implies that children will just teach themselves how to use technology. This has implications in widening the gap between children who have access to technology to explore and those who do not. Proper instruction allows everyone the same access to what is needed to be successful in the use of technology. Prensky's stance on "digital natives" The educational needs of children deemed "digital natives" are not being met by the outdated instructional methods that are used in schools. These children, who have been exposed to technology from an early age need to have technology integrated into their school day to learn to the best of their ability. Alicia's stance on 'digital natives" When the terms "digital native" an...

I am without a doubt a digital immigrant.  Being born in 1971 there was not devices in my house besides a television set.  I spent most of my time playing outdoors or reading. Then when I was about 8ish my father came home with an Atari .  I was amazed!  Video games in my own house.  Pacman and Mario Brothers.  Fabulous! Next, when I was 10ish my father bought me a Commodore 64 .  Looking back I felt like this was the most amazing thing.  I could play games or make pictures.  There were even games that were following directions instead of pictures. In high school I got the latest technology to write my papers with, a Brother Word Processor .  When typing you could only see about one sentence at a time.  I used this through college. Finally, when I was working on my masters I bought a home computer .  At the time I felt so thankful to see a whole page of print at a time.  It wasn't for some time that I actually bega...

My name is Alicia and I am an elementary reading specialist in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.  I am currently enrolled in a Digital Media Literacy course at Rhode Island College.  Through this coursework I am hoping to more about digital media and its uses in my classroom. I have been teaching for 17 years.  The first 12 years I spent teaching an intermediate self-contained special education classroom.  For the past 5 years I have been working as a Reading Specialist teaching small groups of students, many of whom are English Language Learners.  Through my work with these students I decided to begin work towards a Master's Degree in DLI/ELL.  This digital media class is the second to last class in that journey. Outside of teaching I am the mother of two young boys ages Teddy (7)  and  Harry (3). We enjoy spending tons of time outside in the summer months. I am looking forward to a great class and a great summer!