{"id":82,"date":"2012-10-26T18:27:04","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T18:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/?p=82"},"modified":"2012-11-21T00:39:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T00:39:15","slug":"generation-gap-or-gaff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/2012\/10\/26\/generation-gap-or-gaff\/","title":{"rendered":"Generation Gap (or Gaff?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a tendency in the west to isolate\/celebrate\/commemorate a symbolic sloughing off of a decade, an obsession, perhaps, to demonstrate some tangible progress.\u00a0 I am left feeling conflicted about the current trend in educational discourse that postulates the latest edu-speak and profits from the sales of the latest and newest gadgets encouraging us to \u2018get with the programme\u2019 for fear of being left behind.<\/p>\n

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Douglas Coupland co-opted me as a member of Gen X (just barely, mind you).\u00a0 I grew up with Pac Man, Atari and Nintendo, Cyndi Lauper, and MTV.\u00a0 I was interested in creative pursuits, enjoyed socializing and time on my own, wanted my independence and believed in the power of Elvis Costello, the Pixies, and Leonard Cohen.<\/p>\n

When I consider the students that sit in my classroom today, I am neither impaired by a huge chasm that separates them from me, nor am I a \u2018digital immigrant\u2019 struggling to make my way through a lesson.\u00a0 Rather, I am mindful that we are all faced with the challenges and consequences of what has been dubbed the digital age. I see in my students\u2019 faces the same desires and worries, fears and dreams that I, and my contemporaries, had when we were in high school.\u00a0 Today\u2019s students want to socialize, to fit in.\u00a0 They want to demonstrate their independence, their authenticity and value as unique individuals.\u00a0 They want to know they matter.<\/p>\n

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The difference today is that more than ever before, teenagers have to contend with ubiquitous chatter–information and misinformation–coming at them from all media. \u00a0Growing up in a time where computers are commonplace and the Internet has always been, does not make students digital natives. \u00a0They are not inherently able to decipher the many messages emitted from the techno tower of Babel. \u00a0But it is not only those born between 1977 and 1997 (Tapscott) that must contend with (and adapt to) these rapid-fire changes in technology and communication.<\/p>\n

We are all in this boat, together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a tendency in the west to isolate\/celebrate\/commemorate a symbolic sloughing off of a decade, an obsession, perhaps, to demonstrate some tangible progress.\u00a0 I am left feeling conflicted about the current trend in educational discourse that postulates the latest edu-speak and profits from the sales of the latest and newest gadgets encouraging us to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,15,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}