I am currently teaching ELD 1 & 2. Since we just finished reading The Skirt by Gary Soto, I asked the students to create a cultural presentation to share. The assignment required the students to create a Power Point presentation using net books that show us their presentations.
I expected the students to all know how to utilize Power Point, since it is such a common tool to use. I was wrong. I had about one or two students who were not familiar with the technology at all. I prepared myself to teach them the ins and outs of Power Point but found that they weren't interested in my tutorials. They only wanted to know the basic parts and decided to explore it on their own, using their classmates as resources.
Upon thinking about it, I realized that these students are part of a generation that does not read manuals. They do not sit through tedious lectures and ignore long texts (they are the tl;dr generation). They preferred to simply jump in there and figure out the technology on their own. They are used to seeing their teachers use Power Point, so all they needed to do was explore the tool and figure out how to manipulate the design, add pictures, etc. I was surprised and pleased with the final results. We had presentations on Mother's Day, Independence Day in Eritrea (country in the horn of Africa), Valentine's Day, Quinceaneras, Birthdays, New Years, The Virgin of Guadalupe, etc. They showed me just how much different it is to be a digital resident instead of a digital visitor!
Karina, this is an amazing blog post. I would have loved to see the presentations from your students, as well as watch them figure out how to use powerpoint. We have laptops in my classroom, and I feel fortunate that I can my students how to use technology effectively.
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