Digital Nativity

It’s happened a couple of times.  I’ve been out with students and the music needs to be tended to.  The call goes out, “Does anyone have a CD to listen to?”  The answer, silence.  None o the kids have CD players anymore.  Their music is on mp3 players or their cell phones.  Now when I was in grade 7, no one had a portable CD player.  They either weren’t being sold, or they were too expensive.  But then again, no car or bus had a CD player either.

I wasn’t too surprise that not a single student (out of 40) had a CD.  All my CDs have been stacked on the spindles that my blank CDs and DVDs came on.  I never use them anymore.   But, our middle school principal was surprised.

That’s just one example of how digital media has changed the way we entertain ourselves. I’d like to take a closer look along with a couple groups students  at different ages (grade4/5, and 8/9) at how they feel their lives - academic, social and leisure- are affected by the ease and speed of digital information.