About The DISK

The DISK is an acronym for The Digital Immigrant’s Survival Kit.
We began with the Digital Toolbox for Trainers, a selection of over 2 dozen software applications to help educators better instruct learners
Now you may be wondering why there are so many tools to in the Digital Toolbox. Consider the medical profession. When you get down to the basics, a doctor needs something to cut with, something to pick up items, something to close a wound with, and something to dress the wound. Yet, a doctor’s office has a variety of cutting, picking, sewing and dressing tools. Each can do the basics, but has a very specific function it does better than the other tools in that category.
An educator needs the same flexibility, and the Digital Toolbox provides it, only for educators. After all, your tools may just train those future doctors! The DISK is a subset of The Digital ToolBox for Trainers.
DT4T began as a presentation to keep educators and trainers up-to-date with evolving technology. It also served as a resource for individuals who were looking for specific tools for specific needs. The idea for The DISK evolved from this, along with three additional things: a constant request from teachers and industrial trainers for some of the same software applications, a need to find ways to spice up and streamline my own e-learning production, and the following quote from Marc Prensky’s article “Listen to the Naives” which was published in the December 2005/January 2006 edition of “Education Leadership Magazine”: “…the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. “ Today’s younger learner’s are accustomed to surfing the Internet, viewing multimedia sites, listening to podcasts, and being able to get what they want, when they want it, in the format they want.
The DISK is designed to help you create stimulating, engaging, interactive, and timely content for your students, while collaborating with them using the same tools to create and complete projects and assignments.
The DISK consists of the following base tools:
A. One digital presentation tool
B. One digital demonstration tool
C. One digital reinforcement tool
D. One digital review/evaluation tool
E. One collaborative feedback tool
Tools from each of these categories will allow you to customize The DISK to meet your style. Your style of educating learners is unique; why shouldn’t the tools you use reflect your style. Also, you know your learner’s and what they will like.
There are seven types of tools in The DISK:
1. Presentation
2. Demonstration
3. Reinforcement
4. Review/Evaluation
5. Collaborative Feedback
6. Resources
Most tools can create SCORM compliant content, and can be used with any LMS/CMS including Blackboard and Moodle. They can also create standalone modules that can be used on intranets, share drives, and on CD/DVD delivery methods. Hopefully, this blog will help both you and your students as the gap between digital immigrants and digital natives begins to diminish.