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I might be crazy!!


So I did something a little crazy and decided to get a summer job working with little ones. As most of you know I am a middle school math teacher. My summer job of choice working with 6, 7 and 8 year olds. I want to stop here and give a shout out to all the lower elementary school teachers out there. I will take teenage angst over little tears any day. I don't know how you do it!  What is my reasoning? I wanted to try something new? I wanted to see how the other half lives? I am secretly a glutton for punishment? Not really sure, but they did offer me some insight into this whole digital native argument. 

Let me start by saying that the number of littles who have a device of their own is mind boggling to me. I remember forcing my kids to wait until late middle or high school to have their own device. Most of the students in my camp group have a device that is web enabled. By definition these kids are digital natives, but I have noticed a few things.

1. They don't talk to each other. Any moment of down time is spent looking at a screen(little kids watching TikTok is probably not a good idea). For some kids this is resulting in a lack of social skills. The smallest issue is now insurmountable. They don't know how to talk to each other. The only time the are sharing and not fighting is when they are all crowded around someones tiny screen trying to see something.

2. If you are a parent who thinks you are keeping your kids away from screens, you are delusional. If they don't have a device, they are looking at someone else's. Remember when you taught your kid to share? Well...they heard you. 

3. Sometimes parents don't realize that they are giving their littles access to the internet. Two words Nintendo Switch (You might as well give them a phone.) 

4. Privacy is an ongoing issue, even if your kid doesn't have a phone. TikTok dances are better with a group. Kids like to be part of the group. Your kid probably has posted something on the internet without you knowing. I have had to stop several groups from recording dances to post and explain to them privacy issues. Did I catch them all, probably not.

5. These kids don't know how to do anything on their devices except play games and access social media. They aren't really digitally literate, but they appear to be to the outside world. That can be dangerous because we are assuming that these kids are ready to navigate the online community with minimal guidance, when they are not. 

As educators continue to discuss how to incorporate web tools into the classroom, we need to be mindful of the fact that students may appear to be more capable than they are. In order to successfully use these tools, educators will need to explicitly teach kids how to safely navigate online learning communities. 

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