Shifting Gears?

Marc Prensky uses the term Digital Natives to refer to today's students who are native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet (Prensky, 2005). He refers to those not born in the technological age as Digital Immigrants and argues that these immigrants are tainted with an "accent," since they still have one foot planted in the past. It would have been interesting if Prensky had clarified what year you needed to be born after not to be lumped in his "immigrant" category.

Throughout the article Prensky seems to be in a terrible hurry to make learning one hundred percent fun for the students. He suggests students would learn algebra far more quickly and effectively if instruction were available in game format. Students would need to beat the game to pass the course (Prensky, 2005). While I agree that students need to be engaged, life is not a game. Perhaps some lessons could be taught in game format, but it is not realistic to think that every aspect of education can simply be learned in a game format.

Prensky suggests eliminating herding, which he refers to as teacher selected groups. His alternative to herding is to let students self select their groups with students from all over the world. This would be a good idea for some projects, but as an all the time alternative to grouping within the classroom I feel that it is unrealistic and would not be productive. While digital interaction is wonderful students must also learn to relate to all sorts of people face to face and not just through a computer screen. Human interaction in the flesh is powerful and we must foster in students the power of human minds and emotions. Part of assigning children to groups is teaching them how to work with one another.

Prensky makes several points worth noting in his article. He states that teachers must be able lead discussions in the classroom and incorporate what is happening in their students digital lives into their discussions. Interestingly, cellular phones have come a long way since this article was written in 2005. Today nearly everyone has a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). While these phones are modern marvels and should be incorporated in some ways into the classroom, it would be a crime to let the phones take over.

As a (younger) adult I am constantly surrounded by PDA's. All of my friends and colleagues are constantly enthralled with their phones. It is not uncommon to be out to dinner with three other people and to see all three people playing on their phones. What is the point of going out to dinner with each other when we could just social network with one another at home. I have started paying careful attention to this trend and I challenge you next time you go out to dinner to look at what is going on at the tables around you. How many tables do not have phones perched next to plates? How many couples are talking to each other and not engaged with their phones?

I am not from the stone age, or even the older generation. I had a cell phone in high school. However, I think that basic manners and values are being lost. It is my job as a teacher to incorporate technology without letting it take over. I think that if we teach children to rely too much on electronic devices much of what is wonderful about human nature will be lost.

My dad gave me some great advice when I started in business, and it is advice that I will carry over to my teaching career. He told me that while it is easy to simply sit in your office and email your employees, or colleagues next door, that you can tell more about what is truly going on by one face to face interaction then you can tell by ten emails. We must stay actively involved in our students lives and not let computers, phones and technology take over our jobs.

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the natives. Learning in the Digital Age, 63(4), Retrieved from http://www.siprep.org/prodev/documents/Prensky.pdf