I’ve been reading an article titled ‘Digital natives,
digital immigrants’ by Marc Prensky in my ECO II lessons. There, the author
gives a general definition of what he calls ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital
immigrants’, and how these two groups of people have a an impact on teaching
today. He also criticises traditional teaching methods and activities.
I must say, I found Prensky’s ideas quite
interesting and thought-provoking. I agree with him in many points, especially when
he says ‘today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was
designed to teach’.
However, I personally think the author’s
definitions of ‘natives’ and ‘immigrants’ are too general and he doesn’t take
into account variables such as socio-economic status which, in my country, is
very influential. Here, although technology is everywhere, it is not available
to anyone. He also generalises when he talks about teachers – apparently, none
of them is trying to include technology in the classroom and all of their
lessons are boring and outdated. Again, I disagree. Many of my secondary school
and university teachers use technology far better than any student.
Nevertheless, there’s never been so much thought
about teaching, learning and the integration with the new technologies as there
is today. We cannot deny the fact that today’s
students are indeed different from the ones in the past and technology is part
of their lives in one way or another, and schools should take that into
account. Its implementation in the classroom will mean less boring lessons, more engaged students; less outdated activities, more useful real-life like stuff.
References:
Prensky, Marc (2001). Digital Natives Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon. MCB University Press.
Picture retrived from this
link.
