I am guessing that nearly every student in my class takes more pictures with his or her phone than I do. They probably take more pictures of themselves, you know the shot where a fried and you lean toward each other and you then snap the shot, than I take pictures. One might think this great familiarity with the phone and camera would encourage a lot of creative applications.
Today, I asked if any of the students in my class had ever taken a picture of the screen during a class that involved PowerPoint presentations. I meant of a picture that was content related and not of each other. This opportunity occurred to me because it is common practice at many conferences I attend and because so many students seem to want copies of the PP for their personal use. No one. Have you ever taken a picture in a science lab rather than try to sketch something in a notebook? No one. How about taking a picture of where you parked your car in the ramp so you can find it later? A couple.
For those among you interested in the theoretical insight that might explain this problem. Transfer appears to take two forms – high and low road. High road involves direct instruction – offering an analysis of a practice and how it might be expanded. Low road involves heavy use of a practice in a variety of situations. Sometimes people generate their own insights into the flexibility of a practice based on much experience. Sometimes! Evidently student use of technology evidently qualifies under neither of these conditions – we tend to assume or are told students will make use of technology in effective ways and we do not need to suggest applications and students view the power of technology very narrowly.
Digital natives my ….. (foot).