Bobby got his first laptop at the age of 6. Of course,
Robby, then 4 years old wanted one for himself soon. So we told him that once
he turned 6 he will get his laptop too. When he was approaching his 5th
birthday – he’s insisted that he is turning 6. So yes, hubby agreed that he can
have his very first laptop at the tender age of 5. They are digital natives as described by education
expert, Marc Prensky, as opposed to their mom and dad, who are digital
immigrants. According to Prensky, the expanding use of digital technology in
media saturated generation of today makes it impossible for these digital
natives to excel academically if outdated teaching method is used. What they
require is media-rich learning environment to hold their attention.
This is evident when we moved in the Philippines for two
years and the boys went to “traditional” classroom environment. One comment that was very common from their
teachers is that they don’t focus on their lessons. The fact that they are CaNoys
(Fil-Am) in a Philippines school became an easy excuse to their inattentiveness
in their classroom. They are young and I
felt that the best way for them to know about Filipino culture is to be
surrounded by other Filipino kids. It
was an early training for them on how to be culturally flexible in a shrinking global
community.
July last year, we finally returned to Las Vegas. It marked
another shift in our approach to the kids’ learning path. Nanay is a full-time homeschool mom again! After
reading several research on current trends in education, I chanced upon the result
of the study conducted by Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that computer
programming job is growing at twice the national average. Regardless of the industry that our kids
would go into someday, one fact is certain, technology will continue to grow
and it will be part of it. This is why
there is a current push to get the students to coding. Since my digital native
kids learned differently than we do, I thought it would be really counter-productive
to pull them into the way we used to learn things. So cliché at it may sound, I used the “if I
can’t beat them, join them” approach.
In my fashion design class, one line that I always tell my
student is not to remain user of fashion but aim to be creator of fashion. So I used the same line to my kids! Be creator
of technology not just user of it. Operation
Coding started with me studying the first ten lessons offered by Coding.org
website. I do not want to embarrass myself in front of my digital native
students, so I studied my coding lessons well! So feeling confident and smart, I started to
introduce to introduced to then the 1st lesson. Whoa, I made it, got
their attention! Then we move on to the next lesson. Whew! Well, by the time we
were on the 3rd lesson, my digital native boys find my teaching
method slow, so to keep their enthusiasm burning, I swallowed my pride and let
them move ahead with the rest of the lessons. By the time, I am working (and yes,
struggling) on learning the 11th lesson, they have passed me already!
I am competitive but sometimes, hard as it is to admit as parent, there are
areas when we cannot compete with our digital native kids. So I raise my hand
and cheer them on as they complete the lessons.
This is one of those times, when we as a teacher, moved into
the role of being the facilitator of their learning path. My responsibility now is to find and welcome
new resources to nurture and inspire them. So I study and review these resources
initially and let the boys try it out. So what about online games? By thy
fruits; you shall know them, right? Instead
of getting angry at Robby spending time playing Minecraft, I tried to
understand what he gets from it and allowed him to prove that he is learning
from it as well. Instead of being upset with Bobby, creating clans in his
Roblox, I listen to his justification for playing it. Now, I am a Robloxian and Minecrafter as well.
I realized that it is important for the boys to remember the times they played
with their gamer mom.
Fast forward few months after, the boys lived up to my
challenge to not remain a user of technology but be creator as well. Now Robby
learned to create his own swords and other Minecraft resources by writing his
own JavaScript. While Bobby is working on his 3D games using both single person
shooter and role playing games platform. We are also starting our dream of obtaining
certificate of completion for LEGO® Robotic education.
This May, we will be back in our farm in Batangas,
Philippines. We will open our farm for its first summer camp for kids. This will be an interesting
one because we will introduce coding and gaming as part of our camp activities.
Of course, Bobby and Robby is now training now how to become camps animators. As a teaser, when we launched our online learning site, one of the class we will offer is Minecraft for Mom :-)
Me and Robby dancing in Roblox :-) How's that for cute?
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| Robby created a digital art of Nevada State College, he knows I'm a Scorpion and this will earn him extra play time in MInecraft. |
My next post is about Minecraft and why you should allow your kids play and learn from it!
