Generation Gap
In today’s educational landscape, teachers often find themselves facing a unique challenge—the generation gap. A generation gap refers to the chasm that separates the beliefs and behaviors belonging to members of two different generations. More specifically, a generation gap can be used to describe the differences in thoughts, actions, and tastes exhibited by members of younger generations versus older ones. In a classroom environment, this translates to teachers sometimes enforcing obsolete teaching methods (such as the dreaded dictation) and pupils actively disobeying direct instructions, on the premise that they know better. To a teacher whose attitude and methods derive from contexts of the past and never update, young students may seem to misbehave, disregard said teacher and not pay attention in class. In addition, as mentioned above, teaching methods and strategies may not always be student-centered, which could hinder the teaching/learning process. At the other end of the spectrum, there are the young students who are in the position of negotiating their place, rights and obligations in the classroom environment. Poor understanding of the teachers’ background, attitudes and beliefs can lead to aforementioned students dismissively considering their educators outdated, strict or awkward. With each student, the generation gap becomes more pronounced, as students bring their own set of values, attitudes, and preferences to the classroom. To foster effective communication and understanding, teachers need to bridge this gap and establish meaningful connections with their students.
digital inclusion means having the right digital skills and awareness to get connected. This includes the knowledge, confidence, and motivation to use the Internet. Think about the skills needed to connect to a Wi-Fi network, open an Internet application, log into an account, and trust it is secure. These examples highlight the fact that Internet accessibility doesn’t guarantee digital inclusion.
The essential digital skills framework was created by the UK department of education and defines the digital skills adults need to safely benefit from, participate in and contribute to the digital world. The frameworks sets out 5 categories of essential digital skills for life and work:
- communicating
- handling information and content
- transacting
- problem solving
- being safe and legal online
It outlines five key skills and a total of 20 digital tasks that people should be able to complete to demonstrate each skill. Each skill has a distinct focus, but the fifth skill – being safe, legal and confident online – is also embedded across the other four.
In order to bridget the gap, educators should assure that learners can reach the foundation level, which allows basic, self-determined digital interaction:
Foundation Level:
- You can turn on the device and enter any account login information as required
- You can use the available controls on your device (e.g. mouse, keyboard,
touchscreen, trackpad)
- You can use the different settings on your device to make it easier to use
(e.g. adjust font size, volume settings, brightness of screen, voice activation
or screen readers)
- You can find and open different applications/programmes/platforms on your
devices (e.g. opening a web browser, messaging applications)
- You can set up a connection to a Wi-Fi network on your devices (e.g. when at
home, work, out in public or visiting family and friends)
- You can open an Internet browser to find and use websites (e.g. Safari, Google
Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge)
- You can keep your login information and passwords for a device and any
accounts secure (e.g. not shared with anyone or written down or left prominently
near a device)
- You can update and change your password when prompted to do so
Built on the foundation level, further 5 skills areas can be assessed, in order to understand the level of digital literacy. For learners it will be important to have at least the essential digital skills for life and educators should strive for essential digital skills for work. We will come back to the levels in the following modules at the topics of self-assessment.
https://futuredotnow.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Essential-Digital-Skills-framework-2.0.pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bridging-generation-gap-relief-teacher-vibha-dongre/