"Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"

Marc Prensky's article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" raised the pertinent issue of the ever-expanding Computer Age and it's effect on the students of today, how they learn, and how this impacts on educators and the education system itself.

As it was written seven years ago, based on US 'natives' and 'immigrants', I don't think this article is as up-to-date (as, in the Digital World, seven years is a LONG time, technology is developing at even faster rates) or 100% relevant to us, as Australian teachers; as America has always been ahead of us in this development; but there are definitely some good arguements raised. Good as these points are, I still found myself getting annoyed at Prensky (I bet he's the kind of person that laughs at his own jokes)- he seemed to be making some gross generalisations about the younger generations; "Digital Natives"- we do not read books, we spend all our waking hours absorbed in various technologies, we want things now now NOW... Are basically a group of selfish youths, unable to learn in "old school" ways, that WE are the immigrants of the Pen and Paper, the textbook. I think I'm getting side-tracked from what I'm meant to be writing about, but I really resented being lumped in this category. (Granted, while typing this, I am updating my ipod, listening to my stereo and awaiting a text. But that's by the by.)

In terms of how this relates to TEACHERS, I'm not so sure that the situation is as dire and THE-WORLD-WILL-END-IF-WE-DO-NOT-MAKE-LEARNING-INTO-COMPUTER-GAME-FUN!! as Prensky seems to make it; but I agree that some changes need to be made in how we teach. This technology is an accepted and permanent part of our world, and the fact that this is what children are now growing up with has to be accommodated for in education. (But what about all the ghetto kids that do not have access to this? In many parts of the world, Western or not, computers and such are still a relatively foreign concept. Will these students then be disadvantaged? I don't know. Think I'll save that one for Bono or Geldoff.) Teachers should most definitely make room in their classroom and curriculum for computers, the internet, smart boards and other forms of IT that are available to them. But they should not let them Take Over. Children still need to learn to read and write (did anyone else feel that Prensky was a bit TOO computer obsessed, and slightly neglected the importance of the "Old Country" teaching methods, and the incredible importance of producing literate and numerate students??), and while computers and the like can be used, and used very effectively, to assist such skills, they should not be the main focus. Yes, young people have changed from their predecessors, in terms of the way they think and how they approach education; but at the end of the day, I do not believe that this change is so extreme that the whole education system needs to be re-jigged; just adjusted and modernised. He says,

"Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now. But that assumption is no longer valid. Today’s learners are different."-Most of us in this class are part of this generation, and I think that we all still learn effectively (or, have the potential to do so) from our lectures and tutorials, from the prescribed readings, from these 'old school' methods. But technology, particularly computers, do help a lot in our learning; I still think that these technologies are an important secondary learning aid, but not The major way kids are going to learn.

It also has to be remembered that we are, primarily, TEACHERS- hopefully, we will all leave uni with an acceptable and practical amount of ICT knowledge- but it is not the be-all and end-all of our job. Despite all my NEGATIVITY, I do agree with the essential arguements he presents- we have to keep up with the ever-changing digital world, in order to accommodate for our students. But I think that they will still be willing to "slow down" for other, less high-speed learning.
And all day i've been thinking...

Gotta catch em all! Gotta catch em all!
Articuno Jynx Nidorina Beedrill
Haunter Squirtle Chansey... Pokemon!

(It was 2000, it was catchy, it was cool at the time.)

But the capital of Albania? No idea.
Score 1 for Prensky.