Faith in the Profession

And in the Pendulum meet Swing department, I received an invitation to the following webinar:

How Worksheets Support Active Learning in Ways That Screens Can’t: Myths, Busted!

It's funny, but it connects to a conversation I had just the other day with our 21-year-old house guest. "What has your experience been with Gen Alpha?" I asked the Zoomer.

"I think they're annoying," she answered predictably. (Oh, hey there, Millennials.) "And very different from us."

"How so?" I asked with interest.

"When I was born," she began, "not everyone had a screen 24/7. I mean, my baby pictures are actually printed out in an album. That's not true of younger people. Their pictures are all on somebody's phone."

I nodded, thoughtfully. "Did you have a tablet?" I asked her. 

"Not of my own. There was a family iPad, and we had to share it," she answered.

"So watching movies and other things was more of a communal experience for you," I said. "That tracks. It used to be very engaging to use short videos in a lesson, but in the last few years, kids have found them boring. Maybe because they watch short videos of their own choice all the time."

"Probably," she agreed. 

"It's not a novelty anymore," I added. "And they also hate doing skill drills on their devices. It's as if such platforms are a desecration of their screens." I laughed. "I guess teachers are going to have to figure out something else." I paused. "I'm sure they will!"