Fireside chat with Marc Prensky

Following the keynote discussion, the Teacher Ed Division sponsored a fireside chat with Marc Prensky. He invited a panel of students from a local high school that are participating in a Global IT academy initiative. The following are my notes of the discussion.

Guy 1 – some of the ways teachers teach is basic. Using technology, you can get to know people better and analyze things better through technology

Guy 2 – students are more comfortable with technology

Girl 1 – students need technology

Girl 2 – listening to the students is the part that makes the most sense. You can’t teach a student without knowing what they expect

Girl 3 – At school, most students get their technology taken away from them. Tech class is the only class that this student is allowed to explore the world she lives in.

Marc – anything you violently disagree with?

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Girl 3 – teachers are not as far behind as he presented. Teachers are trying to bring in games and they are trying to use technology.

Girl 2 – Students need to learn the “old material” in order to fit in with our current society. Don’t need to change the technology so much.

GIrl 1 – some teachers are having students do a lot of individual learning. Games don’t always help you learn the best way possible.

Guy 2 – I don’t think all teachers try to keep us in the dark with technology. There are a lot of tech classes. Teachers like it and “try” to keep up and shine. They

Guy 1 – Kids teaching themselves is good to a certain extent, but some kids don’t want to teach themselves. Can’t apply that model to all the schools.

Marc – What is the most engaging class that you’ve ever had and why?

Guy 1 – Those in which you don’t sit at a desk all day and read a book. Is taking a choir class and they have to improv. It’s fun to try new stuff. The Global IT class they’re taking now helps them come up with their own solutions.

Guy 2 – Computer programming class makes them think critically. Chemistry is currently interesting, b/c they’re always applying what they learn to life.

Girl 1 – News class. Opportunities to meet people and get out.

Girl 2 – Computer classes. Always project-based. Work at own pace. Not micro-managed. Lab-based classes are always engaging, b/c always applying principles.

Girl 3 – Global IT class. They’re giving students opportunities to get ahead in life. In math they do problem solving, but they do the same with computers, too. She’s challenged to learn to program.

Marc- What’s your pet peeve about teachers? Recommendations.

Girl 3 – When teachers don’t try and associate with the students. Understands where teachers is coming from, but teachers are sometimes so far lost that they don’t relate to students.

Girl 2 – When teachers don’t trust the students. They treat high schoolers as if they are second graders.

Girl 1 – When teachers spend 1/2 the time reviewing.

Guy 2 – When teachers don’t really know what they’re talking about. They monotone and read from a piece of paper. They don’t know how to answer student questions.

Guy 1 – For teachers to understand what students are going through. High school is different than it used to be (i.e., more stress). Too much stress hinders opportunity to do well. Also peeved when teachers don’t try and engage students; not giving opportunities to discuss and elaborate.

Paige Worrell – How do you feel as students when a teacher says, “I don’t know the answers, let’s find out?”

Guy 2 – When a teacher tells me they don’t know the answer, they’re saying we don’t have a big attention span or that students aren’t very smart. When students find the answer on their own, the teacher devalues the student self-learning. It makes him angry.

Marc – asks for elaboration

Guy 2 – teacher doesn’t recognize student’s effort to learn on their own.

AUDIENCE MEMBER (a principal of a school with high poverty and high advantage). Asks students’ SES.

Guy 1 – Our school is a mixture. It’s public. He busses in from another neighborhood b/c of the Global IT program. Thinks it would be cool to mix SES kids.

Girl 2 – Brea is a mixed, public school. Everyone on the panel is an honors student. The Global IT is for honors students, and they are all in the higher classes.

Christine Olmstead (Director of the Academy) – Brea is a middle class to upper middle class community. There are 3,000 students. Put the academy together when thinking about future pathways. Put an academy in place to attract junior high students. Parents all provide students with laptops. Most of these kids have laptops since elementary school.

Marc – Asks students if they have suggestions for how to help different SES students interact.

Girl 3 – Their school already has this in place through “houses.” They play games against houses. This is in place, but should be enforced more.

Marc – is that an opportunity to share technology knowledge?

Girl 3 – Yes. They share mostly with students from other schools.

Guy 2 – The tech students have tried to interact with the non-tech students. Upper classmen are trying to help underclassmen become more technology advanced.

CAROL A. (from audience). If you were a teacher, what would you suggest as a good learning activity with struggling students in a lesson that uses technology?

Girl 3 – do more group projects. Kids don’t like to sit and listen to others all the time. Games are good for interaction.

Girl 2 – Making videos. Give them a video camera and let them create. Creating your own movie is an extremely good way to show how you’ve learned something. It’s interactive and it’s fun.

Guy 1 – Interaction is key to teaching kids about stuff that they don’t really want to learn about.

Marc – Game designers have been very good at doing things that we don’t do in our classes. E.g., giving good goals. goals in class are “get good grades,” “learn something.” Gaming goals are, “be a hero,” “change this,” or “make something happen.” We just had a bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It’s full of math and a problem. Do something that’s important. Try to find goals. Second, decision-making. Games are all about decisions and making things learn. Structurally, we’re making changes in the class. A lot of students Marc talk

PETER RICH – how has learning to program affected your other classes?

Guy 2 – what the Global IT class has helped with is understanding that everything has to be exactly in place in order to work right. It helps them think critically. It helps them be more careful. That has transferred to other classes. If you’re not careful, your solution won’t come out right.

Guy 1 – it’s made us all think outside of the box. In other classes, when we do a project ,the Global IT students have more varied suggestions. the class has made hime look at life differently. He now things about how things work and how he would make things work. It makes him think about and appreciate others’ work more.

Girl 2 – It has helped them socially by creating really strong bonds with other students. High school is also about learning how to belong and fit in and this confidenc helps them learn to work with others.

Girl 1 – Motivitated them to do well in school.

Girl 3 – You have to make applications that are available to every single user. They’ve gone from t-shirt sales (business world-adults) to games (students their age). It helps them to learn how to meet others’ needs. THere are 20-30 people in the class and they have to learn to how make the application fit others’ needs. This has helped her deal with other classes.

Marc – one of the objections we hear from parents, teachers, etc. about kids spending too much time at the computer is that they’ll be cut off from others and not learn social skills. COmment on that?

Girl 3 – My sister is 20 and has not dealt with a lot of things she has. She’s a mortgage broker and they have different knowledge. Girl 3 will share this knowledge with her and learning programming helps them want to share knowledge.

Girl 2 – Technology helps interactions. She’s personally has never gone a day without speaking to someone online.

Girl 1 – At Global IT they don’t just program, they have to make group presentations and learn how to work with each other.

Guy 2 – Most people with gaming don’t have to interact with others, but gaming allows people a way to interact with themselves.

Guy 1 – A lot of today’s games are about interating with others. Through that, you’re using a lot of your social skills, and learning how to communicate with others.

STEPHEN HULME (audience) – what’s the role of a teacher in this new paradigm of how to think and present in a technology-based world?

Guy 1 – When that paradigm shift happens, it’s no longer teaching but now it’s learning.

Guy 2 – The teacher’s role in the new paradigm is to be there when the kid is exploring the technology, but also to help put the answers in front of the student to help them learn new things.

Girl 2 – The teacher needs to help the student know how to learn by themselves. Don’t micro-manage. Give space, but be able to help.

Girl 3 – Don’t make it seem scarry. Help students understand that they’ll survive this class. Don’t build up knowledge to be very scarry. It’s something everyone can do.

RISA (from audience). Directs comment to “Guy 2.” Refers to earlier question about teacher not knowing and asks how he’d feel if the teacher started a class research project.

Guy 2 – that would be a great idea. A lot of times, a student has questions about things that are not in the curriculum. Most of time, in using a blog, students can collaborate and come up the answer.

SEBASTIAN LOH (from audience) Tells the students about the ISMF and that they can submit games for next years’ competition. Asks for their reaction.

Guy 1 – It’s not only a great way to show your knowledge, but also to see what others are doing. Talks about a collaboration project with students in China and how it’s been a good experience.

Guy 2 – Submitting a game to a competetion is great for students b/c you get to see what others are doing and show what you’ve been working on.

Girl 2 – Thanks for telling us about the ISMF. Now we’ll probably participate. It’s a great opportunity for students to show what they’re learning about. It values students’ work.

Girl 3 – When you code, it’s like living in a foreign country, only speaking English. When you come up with a coding joke, your non-coding friends don’t understand. When you’re with somebody who speaks the same language, you don’t feel as much as an outsider, you tend to feel more comfortable. Even though the Chinese students speak another language, they were able to communicate and connect with them.

AUDIENCE MEMBER “Charlie” (one of ECT treasurers and past president) -The Chinese are using the same keyboards.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE

Girl 3 – Wants to become a teacher. They’re the people who help change the world. As a teacher, your voice is heard.

Guy 2 – His parents let him decide what he wants to be. He wants to be a doctor. After med-school, he’d like to take a side-job to teach. He really enjoys sharing his knowledge with others. It makes him feel good to help others.

Guy 1 – Really wants to go to medical school. If he gets past it, he’d like to take what he knows and puts his perspective on it and see if others learn it and their joy in learning. He tutors his sister in math and likes to see her excitement when she learns.

AUDIENCE MEMBER – As a teacher, how would you handle the exchange of techology with exams?

Guy 2 – Let students collaborate through technology before exams, but not during exams. Has seen students text during exams.

Guy 1 – Some of tests they have taken are on computer and he would probably stick to that. If it’s on the computer, you can randomize answers. Computerized assessment exposes students to technology.

Girl 2 – Her exams wouldn’t be conventional b/c she feels that students crack under pressure. She’d use a project-based approach.

Girl 3 – As far as teaching in general, people are still experimenting. The Global IT academy started out as something they wanted to do but didn’t know if it would work. She’d experiment as a teacher. She’d have students design applications to show them what they know. Teachers have the opportunity to experiment. There’s no definite answer.

Marc – Is an advocate of open-phone tests. Like open-book tests when he went to college. A student told him that most tests already are open-phone tests, teachers just don’t know it. To close, asks students what they thought of this panel discussion.

Girl 3 – She feels that the audience took in what students said and that backs up Prensky’s presentation. It’s great to have an opportunity to be heard.

Girl 2 – All teachers should sit down and take the opportunity to hear what students are saying and thinking. The fact that she can say what she thinks and that we are listening feels good.

Girl 1 – Chance to learn from each other.

Guy 2 – This is great for students and teachers to be able to collaborate. We’ve also been able to hear what the teachers think of our ideas.

Guy 1 – Likes that students became almost equal to teachers. If students and teachers could collaborate a lot more, things would get done. There are things that students know that teachers don’t. We could be learning with each other and it would be

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