If we think about students, we can agree that they are not the
same as they were some time ago, they have changed a lot. As Prensky (2001)
said, “Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of
computers, video games and the Internet”. Teachers nowadays, face a big problem
which is the offset of communication between students (Digital Natives) and
teachers (Digital Immigrants).
Prensky (2001) said that “Digital Immigrant teachers assume that
learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that
worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students
now”. I personally think that this is not true. Teachers are still Digital
Immigrants; however, they certainly know that students are not the same as some
years ago and they also know that the teaching methods no longer work as
before. It is possible to teach these “new learners” but some changes
must be made.
First of all, teachers should change the methods. Students learn
in their own ways, through games, hypertext and digital technologies; so,
teachers should find a balance between the typical ways of teaching and the
actual context, regarding students’ preferences and interests. The second
change that must be made is the content. Digital Natives request to learn more
practical skills than monotonous learning and the society requires them to
develop more critical thinking. So, this is a big challenge for teachers, who
must create or adapt the materials. In Prensky´s words, “we have to invent, but
not necessarily from scratch. Adapting materials to the language of Digital
Natives has already been done successfully”.
There is no doubt that teaching and learning are influenced by
technology nowadays and so are influenced by digital literacies. But, what do
we mean when we talk about “digital literacies' '? Digital literacies refer to
the ability to use the technology at our disposal, not just the technical
skills but also to the social practices that this involves. As Hockly N.
(2018) affirms, new media literacy skills now supplement the more traditional 3
Rs (reading, writing and 'rithmatic). “According to Lankshear and Knobel
(2008), the term digital literacies can be thought of as “a shorthand for the
myriad social practices and conceptions of engaging in meaning making mediated
by texts that are produced, received, distributed, exchanged, etc., via digital
codification” (p. 5)” Hafner, C. A., Chik, A. and Jones, R., eds. (2015)
These digital literacies
definitely redefine our tasks and roles as teachers because we should add an
element to our teaching content. Apart from the language, we should teach how
to use the technology. This can be favorable for students since in the here and
now will make our lessons more interesting and enjoyable and in the future,
will help the students to get better job opportunities. “Jones and Hafner
(2012) provide a model for digital literacies that shows how the affordances of
digital tools facilitate not only ways of meaning, but also ways of doing,
relating, thinking, and being. Based on a theory of mediated discourse
analysis, this model can serve as a useful starting point for teachers who are
interested in understanding digital literacies and embedding them in the
language curriculum”. Hafner, C. A., Chik, A. and Jones, R., eds. (2015)
The main challenge is for the teachers, because as many of them
are digital immigrants, they must learn these technical skills and social
practices first in order to teach them to the students later.
BIBLIOGRAFIA:
Prensky, M. (2001)
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.
Hafner, C. A., Chik, A. and Jones, R., eds. (2015) Digital
literacies and language learning. Language Learning &
Technology, 19 (3). Language Learning & Technology.
Nicky Hockly - Digital literacies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRN6HdbzPPU&ab_channel=CambridgeUniversityPressELT
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