A Generational Comparison (Blog post #3)

At the moment, I am assisting two school-aged children with their homework after school. One is in grade 4 and the other is in grade 6. After reading the assigned articles this week, I have begun to notice some differences between what/how they are learning and what/how I learned at their age.

One obvious difference is the use of technology. While I learned how to type and use the computer like a book (to read and research), the kids learning is completely immersed and dependent on technology. They use chrome books and iPads, all of their documents are stored on google drive, they use an application called "Classroom" to find all of their materials and lessons. They both know how to code and they were kind enough to teach me what that meant. For their presentations, they use a website called "FlipGrid" to record themselves and watch their classmates' presentations.

With all of these applications, along with "success criteria" for each assignment, I feel they are given much more control of their success than I was. I remember feeling so powerless about my own learning. How could I get a good grade if it depended on what my teacher thought of my work? I realized this the other day when one of the kids' received a bad mark on his art assignment. I was upset because he is a really good drawer and I felt this childish anger erupt. That's not fair! Who is she to say he's not a good drawer? I then asked him to show me the rubric, feedback, or success criteria and for this particular assignment there wasn't any so I said, "this grade doesn't really reflect your abilities if there is no feedback on what you could improve on. It's just a grade!" I may have disrespected his teacher in this moment, but my inner child didn't want him to feel the same powerlessness I felt when I got a bad grade and couldn't understand why.