Reflections on Prensky Articles

In his two articles on Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives, Marc Prensky discusses how students today live in a radically different tecnological world, and as such learch in different ways and even have different brain structures.

'Digital Natives', as he calls this new generation of young people, are born into a world of instant access to information, through email, the internet, online encyclopedias, mobile phones and social networking sites. As a result they think different;ly to those born before such a leap in technology and the education system must reflect this. For these young people to be challenged education must interact with them on their wavelength, be that through whole class learning spoaces, research projects or discussion boards for topics. Digital imagery, films and discussion must all be employed to make learning exciting but also funcitonal in this technological age.

Those born before this technological world are known by Prensky as Digital Immigrants. Such Immigrants may well become involved in the technological world but will always retain to some degree a link and certain fondess for the past. Classic examples of this given by Prensky include printing out emails or calling people into your office to show them an interesting website rather than just sending around the URL.

Prensky certainly seems to have surmised the present state of technological integration amongst the different social groups and generations. As he acknowledeges, some people hide their immigrant status better than others and this shows in the ever increasing ICT literate band of society. As teachers i feel it is vital that we acknowledge the way technology is moving, and the fact that we need to prepare our students to work in such a world and be stimulated in their learning. This can be achieved through a blended approach, incorporating ICT wherever possible into the curriculm and using it to expand and enrich educational experiences.


Links to the Prensky articles themselves are availiable on the below website
http://www.pgce.soton.ac.uk/ict/NewPGCE/AcademicArticles.htm