Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Prensky, Marc. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

I thought I would take a break from only talking about digital photography and take a moment to address WHY I think technology in education is so important. Our students are different today than they were even twenty years ago when I was in elementary school. They are used to a fast paced, instant access, image overload, multi-tasking kind of environment. I have always enjoyed using technology and was playing games when I was young, used it for research and writing papers in college, I keep in touch with friends and family through email, and can't begin to describe/list how many things I use it for on a daily basis in the classroom teaching and in this virtual classroom of being an on-line grad student. I feel I have done a relatively "good" job of moving forward as each new advancement has come out. But now I sometimes feel that things are coming out so fast now that it is hard to keep up with everything, but I have to say I am "proud" of myself, because right now as I am typing this I have CD playing on my computer, which I am both listening to and downloading to my iPod! I have four Internet tabs open...one for this, one for the Prensky article, one for APA formating (I can never remember that even though I do it constantly), and one for our on-line class. I feel like I have mastered the art of mulit-tasking!! I see the same thing in my students. Some may call it ADHD, but I think a lot of those tendencies are really due to the fact that kids expect to be throughly engaged at all times. While this is not meant to be an excuse for bad behavior, I do think it is important to understand all the contributing factors to issues such as that. I think one of the ways to help students become more engaged is to provide them with strategies and tasks that are more suited to how they learn. I believe that most of our students would be more engaged in academic tasks through the images, speed, interactivity, and FUN of using most technology applications. These points are highlighted in Prensky's article. Here is an excerpt of a review I did of the article for another class:

I read a wonderful article titled “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” by Marc Prensky in which he describes most educators as Digital Immigrants. This terms means that we are new to the digital world, most of us didn’t grow up with cell phones, iPods, and the Internet. These advancements are new to us and we have had to adapt our way of thinking to make use of them in our lives. Most of our students, however, have always had these things in their lives (especially my six and seven year old first graders). They haven’t had to adapt to these things, it is in their very nature to use them. Sadly, he states that “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” (Prensky 2001).

I took that statement into account as I reflected on my use of technology in my classroom. I have a computer schedule where each child has one full day to work on a computer. Each morning I load the software that is appropriate to their level, and they spend the day doing educational games. The students love their time on the computer and it provides a good review of previously taught material, or sometimes even introduces them to new topics. I have a website at School Notes where I list the homework and any reminders for the week, and it also allows the parents to contact me via email with any questions or concerns. (I love email for quick questions because it allows me to provide immediate feedback to parents, instead of playing phone tag for days on end.) I have also begun incorporating movies, video clips, and images into my lessons from United Streaming. I especially like the video clips, because it allows me to pick and choose the exact portion of videos that are relevant to my specific topic without having to waste the time it would take to watch an entire video. I am lucky enough to have a laser projector, so the students can watch these things on the “big screen” which is a favorite of theirs. I created a classroom blog, but as of yet I have only used it to post information about activities that the students have done in the classroom. As I reflected on these things, though, I realized that none of them changed how I fundamentally thought about educating my students. The only technology I was really incorporating into my curriculum was video clips, and educators have been using videos for so long that I can’t really call using them an advancement!

I think it is definitely time for me to take some excellent advice from Prensky, “So if Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change. It’s high time for them to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of the Digital Native generation says, “Just do it!” They will succeed in the long run” (Prensky 2001). That really sums up the reason I enrolled in this program. I feel that for students to be successful in the global community, we as educators have to provide them the skills necessary to do so, and that means changing how we teach. I realize this is a big step and isn’t something that will happen overnight. Right now I feel as if I’m taking baby steps, but baby steps forward have to be better than standing still in my old ways.

Creating this curriculum unit has forced me to take some more new steps. One of the things that I really wanted to do was use technology to have my students create something. In my unit we will use a digital camera to take pictures to illustrate a story that students will type (with assistance) using MS Word to make a classroom book. I also created games to review concepts using MS PowerPoint, something I think my students will benefit from and enjoy. I would also like to use my classroom blog in a more interactive way. I would love to post student work samples on-line for their parents to see, record students reading stories that they wrote, and have them comment on each other’s work. I think seeing their work presented in this way would motivate them to do their best. It would also help me, because it would be an awesome way to keep a record of student work (and growth) throughout the year. The benefits of technology are simply overwhelming and outweigh the time it would initially take to implement. With all of these amazing possibilities it is crucial that we focus on the objectives we expect our students to accomplish, though. I am really looking forward to this challenge!

I hope that from this article you will feel the same way!! Good luck!!

Sabrina