Marc Prensky’s articles, has caused me to reflect on the classroom; it is a new era with a new generation, that allows the opportunity to use a new mode of teaching, so more students can learn. This is a two-part series entitled "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives," Marc Prensky (2001) employs an analogy of native speakers and immigrants to describe the generation gap separating today's students (the Digital Natives) from their teachers (the Digital Immigrants). According to Prensky, the former are surrounded by digital media to such an extent that their very brain structures may be different from those students of previous generations and which he states, “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work” (pg2). So as teachers what should our next step be?
As a student in Graduate school preparing to be a teacher, it is very clear that I must be open to change. It is necessary that I be aware of how a student learns and constantly search for the best way to reach our students before they mentally check out. We have to understand that a student learns either auditory, visual. Kinesthetic but we must not leave out the growing group called the digital learners. Many teacher up to now use the digital arena as fillers, when all else has been done, for the day in the classroom, then and only then, the teacher would throw in a movie, CD, or allow students to play games on the computer and it is time for that to change! I grew in a family with a TV, Phone, eventually Cell Phone, Nintendo games, I Pods but it was considered a luxury not a necessity until I was about 10, then the world changed and so did I. My family supported my learning journey, and discovered that I was a visual learner, complimented later by digital learning. When this discovery happened, the whole world of learning became a store front where I could pick and choose how I would learn. I would say I am a Digital Immigrant or a transplanted one because my age group was just on the cusp of the digital transition. Every class needs all modes of learning, some more than others, as a Theater Major, I cannot lose my focus on the person on the stage, that person/persons is transforming us to a time and place, that will become our reality for a few hours. How we get to that performance is where the Digital learner enters the theater forum. As a High School, Drama or History teacher, I will need to be open to the various modes of learning. In a Drama class, the stage is my focus but before the actor gets to the stage, a need for the digital learner to enhance the production in an even more creative way. One of the reason I love the theatre is that it is joint effort in a creative community, that energy is generated within each other and to the audience with really all modes of learning present. I am open to the change and Prensky is right, children are even different now from when I was a child. Prensky even admits by saying in part two of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: “We now know that brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop differently and that people who undergo different inputs from the culture that surrounds them think differently” (pg.3). It is my job to be aware and observant to the world and how the students around me learn!
When I attended undergraduate school, I realized that the Digital Native community had arrived. Like all forms of learning Digital learning helped me most when the professor realized there were four modes of learning and that same professor taught with that constantly in mind Incorporating all learners is the only way we can produce successful teachers and then successful students is the natural result to this approach in teaching. Prensky’s points are well taken as long as we hold on to that fact that all students have their own style of learning; it imperative that the Digital learner be added to the mix but as “good” teachers; it should never be exclusive of the other three modes of learning.
I am going to finish this post with how I have started it, Prensky makes many valid points, another example of this is when he says; “It’s not actually clear to me which is harder – “learning new stuff” or “learning new ways to do old stuff.” I suspect it’s the latter” (pg.4). I’d like to think that Marc Prensky accepts the fact that all modes of learning are important to meet all learners and at the same time we as future teachers must accept the fact, that there are new thoughts in a new world and we had best get on board!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
