Monday, January 30, 2012

Marc Prensky's Article


What stood out most to me in Marc Prensky's article were his points regarding the "digital natives" and the "digital immigrants." I never gave it much thought until now, that students currently in the USA have all grown up with technology.  They are, or can be almost fully immersed in it, compared to generations before.  Prensky mentions, "Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives."  This does not surprise me too much; however I do believe that there are pros and cons with both and that there can be a happy medium between the two. Therefore, digital immigrants and digital natives should both adapt in different area to discover this. I understand we as a society cannot restrict growth in certain areas, such as technology, but when is too much of something counter productive?  Too much of something usually has its concerns as well.

There has been, and there will be more technological growth in education, and it is our responsibility as teachers to adjust accordingly to students’ learning style. Teachers must teach to both the digital immigrants and digital natives as best he/she can. There will always be students who are at different places and who have different levels of awareness in the tech world, due to accessibility, social economic status, etc; therefore, we must be familiar and able to relate to students at either end of the spectrum.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with your comments that it is necessary to maintain the traditional while being on the frontlines of technology in the classroom. Prensky goes too far, I believe in throwing out the traditional altogether. Thanks for your persoective.

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