Digital Immigrant

It always amazed me, as the son and grandson of Cuban immigrants, what incredible courage it took for my parents, and their parents, to leave a life and a world, and a language they knew for a new life, a strange life in the United States. As i kid, I took for granted that my grandparents spoke only Spanish, that my parents spoke Spanish, and English, although both parents spoke English with heavy accents. As I got older I appreciated what they had actually done. They started over.

My father had been in medical school prior to Castro's revolution, cutting short a medical career that would never take fruition in the United States. My mother, had come four years earlier. Her brothers, earlier still. My maternal grandparents came to the United States, pre-Castro, pre -revolution. They came to keep their family together. They traveled back and forth whenever they could, until the revolution and the embargo made that impossible.

Their story isn't really any different from any other immigrant. My grandmother stayed at home, while my grandfather worked as a carpenter. My uncles worked in embroideries. My father worked in factories during the day, going to NYU at night to learn to speak English. He would eventually start working as an interpreter in municipal court, then as a juvenile intake officer, and finally a coordinator of a mentoring program for probation officers. Far cry from doctor, yet I don't believe he ever regretted his decision.

My mother graduated from the dame high school I would graduate from twenty some odd years later. She would work for Western Electric and At&T, eventually becoming a programmer, ( yet one more language learned). She retired in her mid forties and started another career in a medical clinic. Ironic, that she would retire from a hospital.

As I quickly approach my fortieth birthday I am in awe of my family, and of the other immigrants that came from, and continue to immigrate from all over the world. It is only recently that I have some concept of what they might have felt. What challenges they must have faced, and how frustrating, and humbling it can sometimes be to be an immigrant in a new land.

Many of us in education today, and certainly most of us responsible for running education departments, schools, and classrooms are immigrants in a new world. We are digital immigrants and the digital natives are restless.

I considered myself pretty tech savvy. I could use most computer programs, I thought I was keeping up with the digital world. I was mistaken. blogging, NING, Wiki, Youtube, Google,vlogging,text messaging these continue to grow and move at speeds faster than I thought I could keep up. Something else is happening. Self imposed old age. It is a constant battle for me to not give up.

I've learned enough, give me my digital AARP card, and let me retire from this digital world. Except, I can't. Truthfully, I don't want to. This is my third blog, but I knew by my first, I was hooked. I don't even care if no one reads this, ( OK, I care a little), but I am writing about things I have never given much serious thought to before. I am looking at life through a different set of eyes, speaking to a different audience.

I see new teachers preparing for classes, preparing to teach and laptops, and websites, and delicious, and Google documents, and VODs all become active. I talk to them and keep up, so far, but I know that it takes a concerted effort on my part to remain knowledgeable and active in this new digital world.

I am forever relearning, becoming, forced to become, that lifelong learner we so often hear teachers preaching about. Yet, how can we teach our students to be the lifelong learners they need to be to compete in the world where their every thought can be immortalized on digital paper when we don't even know what it is to use digital paper? How can we teach our students to be digital learners when we, teachers, educators, are afraid to make the trip to the "new world"?

So I am relearning. I am blogging. I am Googling myself, ( and let's be honest, others), and I am learning the language. I am excited for what my children's world will look like. They are digital natives after all. They are already surfing, (supervised by a parent of course), they are navigating the use of the mouse and the keyboard. They are on their way. Is it possible that I can have a Second Life?

My parent's second life started because a tiny island had a tiny despot and forced a huge change in their life. My second life well, I don't know where my second life is going, but I know I am getting there digitally. If I want to speak to my kids, my grandkids, if I want to make an impact on education and all the children who will pass through my school then I need to be brave enough to work through the challenges of this new world. I need to learn its customs, its language(s), it pitfalls and perils. But I also need to see it for what my parents saw the Statue of Liberty, an opportunity for a better life. If not for me, then for my children, and their children.