Have you seen Prensky’s article in the newest edition of Edutopia’s magazine:

http://www.edutopia.org/literacy-computer-programming

I was reading it during silent reading today—print version (I was proud of myself)—and it got me thinking about our conversation again.

In it, he argues that those who can bend machines to meet their needs are going to be the most successful in the future. Calls such people “digital scribes,” referring to the people who would read and write for others so long ago.

I think the fact that resonated with me the most was that computers thirty years from now will be a billion times more powerful than they are today.

Whew!

If that’s true, learning to master machines is going to be far more important tomorrow than it is today.

Which leaves me wrestling again with my role!

Rock on,
Bill

PS…I too am thankful for the digital conversation we share! The kinds of conversations that I have with others through blogs are hands down more sophisticated than those I share during the school day.

Don’t know why, but I’m glad I can “meet up” with other thinkers like this.

http://higheredison.typepad.com/higheredison/2008/01/we-live-as-we-d.html

…and I love his image of us cross-century adults with cantilevered Life 1.0 and digital Life 2.0…it’s just not that way with our kids, is it? For them, it’s all of a piece.

I know that won’t change, as you say. But the question is, where does my role as teacher fit into it?

I don’t know whether the “digi-real” is something to encourage healthily in my classroom, or whether it’s something to which my classroom should be a counterbalance. Or whether I can do both somehow.

And not to complicate things further, but I haven’t even gotten started on the corollary environmental issues Web 2.0 poses. If we are less connected, purely sensually, with the earth (and our very own bodies) vis a vis computers, then what will happen? (The Industrial Revolution 2.0? Richard Louv’s “Last Child in the Woods” is a provoking read on this topic.)

But let me say this: Web 2.0 is a thicket, and messy, and unpredictable, but I sure would not have found compatriot educators like you without it. And I am profoundly grateful for that.

And what will happen, therefore, if we– and they– continue to further integrate our human communication with that of Web 2.0?

Great post, Dina—and a great series of questions that is challenging my thinking for sure.

I’m not sure that we have a choice of whether or not human communication will be further integrated with Web 2.0. That seems to be inevitable to me.

And I also think our definitions of “authentic connections” will change over time too. The kids of tomorrow won’t feel the sense of loss that we sometimes feel at the decreasing opportunities for face to face relationships because digital relationships will have become such a natural part of their lives.

Is that a good thing?

I’m really not sure….I know that I feel disconnected from colleagues on my hallway who I once spent far more time with socializing.

But I also can’t see digital relationships playing a less important role in the future than they do today.

Bill

PS…My thoughts feel unfinished here…I’ve clearly got to think around this some more.