This term, tech-savvy, represents a hasty generalization about the tech skills of millions of milliniels. Because every kid has a phone and uses it frequently, many naively assume they are tech geniuses, but here's the deal. Just because kids know how to use Instagram or are glued to a screen, it doesn't automatically mean they are tech savvy. It just means they're tech-trendy.
Sure, most kids know how to create social media accounts, and they know how to interact socially, but that's not savvy anymore. It's just a trend. Every kid in my generation had an Atari, but that didn't make us all wiz-kids. It meant that we were keeping up with the times.
So What is Tech-Savvy???
Learning in this decade is way past putting devices in kids' hands and asking them to interact. They know how to do that already because being social with technology is commonplace. What kids do with technology beyond socializing is what makes them savvy.
Being savvy means being making an impact on others. Social is trendy. Collaboration is savvy. Collaboration requires creativity, conversation, and problem-solving about ways to positively affect our glocal world. If kids don't learn these 21st century skills in school, their chances of being competitive in a global market are the equivalent of a horse-drawn carriage winning in the Daytona 500.
#notverygood
My kids have a phone. They have accounts, but I want them to learn how to use that phone for something more important than finding out who's going out with who. Parents want their children to know more than how to post content on a social space. Our world needs them to deepen their knowledge and broaden their horizons with that technology. This can only happen when instruction moves beyond trendy tech toleration and actually emulates the integrated world that they will inherit. If we want kids to move beyond the comforts of today's technological trends, we must create learning spaces that encourage and actually empower kids to truly aspire attaining the truest definition of tech-savvy.
So the question shouldn't be, "Are kids tech savvy or tech trendy?" It should be this. Are we creating learning spaces that transform superficial tech trends into meaningful learning that empowers kids to change the world today and tomorrow?
Does this make any sense?
John wrote:
ReplyDeleteSo the question shouldn't be, "Are kids tech savvy or tech trendy?" It should be this. Are we creating learning spaces that transform superficial tech trends into meaningful learning that empowers kids to change the world today and tomorrow?
-----------------
This is super well stated, John.
Schools are doing their jobs only when kids recognize the power in the tools that they carry in their pockets.
Rock on,
Bll
Thanks Bill. The more I look at my own children and the things they do with their technology, the more I feel compelled to write on the power of technology in the classroom. Their learning is in the palm of their hands, literally...
Delete