Port Moresby, PNG, 30 January 2017 -- No doubt the teacher of today faces seemingly insurmountable challenges: to keep the interest level up and to encourage their students to concentrate in class when their minds wander away from the subject at hand. Jubilee Catholic Secondary School teachers, like most teachers now, also face the same challenge. But the Social Media Seminar on Monday afternoon, January 30, 2017, presented by Fr. Ambrose Pereira, SDB, has awakened in them useful insights into the minds of the students in their classroom today: the so-called digital natives.
Digital natives are wired differently. Their thinking patterns are different. Their use of gadgets has shrunk their attention span and they usually feel the need to power down, which most of them do in class. These characteristics discussed in the session hit the teachers hard during the seminar. Most of them were nodding their heads enthusiastically as Fr. Ambrose highlighted the differences between digital natives and digital immigrants, the category which most attendees of the seminar belong to.
After hearing important insights about social media: its positive and negative effects on its users and the characteristics of the generation that are weaned on it, what do the teachers think about it? Ms. Esther Maragau, English teacher, agreed to a point made in the seminar: “It’s true that people can have so many friends on facebook but how many real friends do they have?” She added that she really enjoyed the seminar. Mr. John Moiun, who teaches Arts, concurred. “It was educational. I think, as teachers, we should create more awareness for humanity to break away from devices and instead interact face to face.”
It was not only teachers who have their work cut out for them. For both Ms. Cecilia Hasu and Ms. Rachel Pamben, English teachers, the government itself should respond to the characteristics of the digital natives who are the learners of today. Ms Hasu questioned, “Are Curriculum writers and policy makers, aware of these? The seminar really shed some light on why the students are behaving that way, why they are not performing as they should. Many of these curriculum writers are digital immigrants too, we need digital natives in these position so that they improve the curriculum. The population now that are involved in social media are very smart but in the classroom they are bored. The government should consider this and come up with a new syllabus.”
Most attendees agree that the Social Media Seminar thoroughly enlightened their minds and encouraged them to adjust their thinking into understanding their students better. In the end they thanked Fr. Ambrose for the session. Ms. Roselyn Ruru, Business Studies teacher even commented, “I wish more people will go through the seminar because it will really help them. I even shared what I learned with my husband!”
