Marc Prensky, author of the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants argues issues facing our current education system. He believes that students have changed drastically over the years. So much in fact, that he thinks that our brain structures differ from those of previous generations. He calls the “new” students of today Digital Natives while those not born into the digital world are called Digital Immigrants. He discusses the impact of technology on today’s generation and ways to reach them in the classroom. He talks about how the gap between Digital Natives and Immigrants is the reason for the decline of the U.S. education. This is because, according to Prensky, our current educational system has “not been designed to serve today’s students”. The instructors today fall under the Digital Immigrants category as they speak an “outdated language” to us Natives. He discusses different ways to effectively teach this new generation of students from using “edutainment” (combo of education and entertainment) such as computer games to speeding up instruction and using graphics to engage students. He argues that if educators really want to reach out to their students, then they will have to change their out-of-date teaching styles in order to be effective. I agree with this wholeheartedly. It is important that we adapt to our constantly changing environments and teach lessons concerning the past, present, and future. Our best learning is accomplished when the material is fun, relevant, and relate-able. Technology is constantly changing, and it’s time we change with it!
Prensky's article
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