“Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.”
-Marc Prensky,
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
I am a digital native. In first grade, I learned social studies by using the Oregon Trail, spelling with capcom’s “Spell-a-saurus,” and math with “Mathblaster.” I was typing most of my homework on a computer by fourth grade and conducting internet research for reports by fifth grade. I spent three hours a night under the supervision of sonic the hedgehog after completing my homework during an IM session while listening to Ace of Base. I can even remember my dad’s ‘laptop’ as child—it was the size of a carry-on suitcase and was only capable of word processing or allowing users to play the game “beast.” I cannot think of a time when school work didn’t involve computers or when weekend fun was devoid of video games. Though technology continues to change over time and through advancement, I never worry that it will surpass my understanding or leave me out of touch because I am a digital native and just like the technology I use, I will adapt.
My own self-philosophy of technological adaptation was challenged when I went to college. Suddenly, a teacher who didn’t even know how to set-up a wireless router or use a thumb drive was telling me that my researching technique of “googling’ a topic was insufficient. As I am sure many students of my generation felt when their digital alien teachers told them that most modern technology lead to poor research, I was frustrated. My teachers were requiring a different type of thinking than I even thought myself capable of as a digital native, in fact “Linear thought processes that dominate educational systems now can actually retard learning for brains developed through game and Web-surfing processes on the computer” (Prensky 2001). Trying to adapt my lifetime of informal research into scholarly, structured techniques posed a unique challenge. Luckily, with my n-generation brain, full of plasticity, I was able to find a hybrid of traditional research—using scholarly material but through my n-gen mediums of podcasts and online resources.
The great importance of my experience, and the frustration that I experienced as a college student from the demand for out-dated inquiry, is in how my frustration can make me a better teacher. “Engage Me or Enrage Me” by Marc Prensky discussed how students of the digital age have short attention spans and become easily frustrated with the non-engaging type of teaching styles many teachers today often employ. As a digital native, I can take my experience with technology and consider how I think and how my younger brother-in-laws process information and develop fun and inventive teaching methods to differentiate instruction and accommodate different types of learners. I can easily integrate technology into the classroom. I can have students sign up of tweets of their homework assignments so that I can remind them daily of what’s due and what is coming up. I can have a class website with a digital drop box to submit homework. I can develop a class blog for writing assignments which will provide students the ability to easily peer review one another’s work and to see examples of how their classmates have completed assignments. I can use interactive PowerPoint timelines that allow students to study at their own pace and watch imbedded images that go along with their course content. I can use my empathy for feeling misunderstood as a learner to fashion a better experience my students than I had.
I am a digital native. I know that “all the students we teach have something in their lives that’s really engaging—something that they do and that they are good at, something that has an engaging, creative component to it” (Prensky 2005). I have grown up with technology. It has molded my thought process. I understand the plight of the technologically misunderstood student and now it is my turn to bring about the change in learning that student’s brains’ require. I am a digital native hardwired to teach my digital students.
Prensky, M. “Do They Really Think Differently.” On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 6, December 2001)
Prensky, M. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.’ On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)
Prensky, M. “Engage Me or Enrage Me.” Educause review. (September 2005).
-Marc Prensky,
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
I am a digital native. In first grade, I learned social studies by using the Oregon Trail, spelling with capcom’s “Spell-a-saurus,” and math with “Mathblaster.” I was typing most of my homework on a computer by fourth grade and conducting internet research for reports by fifth grade. I spent three hours a night under the supervision of sonic the hedgehog after completing my homework during an IM session while listening to Ace of Base. I can even remember my dad’s ‘laptop’ as child—it was the size of a carry-on suitcase and was only capable of word processing or allowing users to play the game “beast.” I cannot think of a time when school work didn’t involve computers or when weekend fun was devoid of video games. Though technology continues to change over time and through advancement, I never worry that it will surpass my understanding or leave me out of touch because I am a digital native and just like the technology I use, I will adapt.
My own self-philosophy of technological adaptation was challenged when I went to college. Suddenly, a teacher who didn’t even know how to set-up a wireless router or use a thumb drive was telling me that my researching technique of “googling’ a topic was insufficient. As I am sure many students of my generation felt when their digital alien teachers told them that most modern technology lead to poor research, I was frustrated. My teachers were requiring a different type of thinking than I even thought myself capable of as a digital native, in fact “Linear thought processes that dominate educational systems now can actually retard learning for brains developed through game and Web-surfing processes on the computer” (Prensky 2001). Trying to adapt my lifetime of informal research into scholarly, structured techniques posed a unique challenge. Luckily, with my n-generation brain, full of plasticity, I was able to find a hybrid of traditional research—using scholarly material but through my n-gen mediums of podcasts and online resources.
The great importance of my experience, and the frustration that I experienced as a college student from the demand for out-dated inquiry, is in how my frustration can make me a better teacher. “Engage Me or Enrage Me” by Marc Prensky discussed how students of the digital age have short attention spans and become easily frustrated with the non-engaging type of teaching styles many teachers today often employ. As a digital native, I can take my experience with technology and consider how I think and how my younger brother-in-laws process information and develop fun and inventive teaching methods to differentiate instruction and accommodate different types of learners. I can easily integrate technology into the classroom. I can have students sign up of tweets of their homework assignments so that I can remind them daily of what’s due and what is coming up. I can have a class website with a digital drop box to submit homework. I can develop a class blog for writing assignments which will provide students the ability to easily peer review one another’s work and to see examples of how their classmates have completed assignments. I can use interactive PowerPoint timelines that allow students to study at their own pace and watch imbedded images that go along with their course content. I can use my empathy for feeling misunderstood as a learner to fashion a better experience my students than I had.
I am a digital native. I know that “all the students we teach have something in their lives that’s really engaging—something that they do and that they are good at, something that has an engaging, creative component to it” (Prensky 2005). I have grown up with technology. It has molded my thought process. I understand the plight of the technologically misunderstood student and now it is my turn to bring about the change in learning that student’s brains’ require. I am a digital native hardwired to teach my digital students.
Prensky, M. “Do They Really Think Differently.” On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 6, December 2001)
Prensky, M. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.’ On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)
Prensky, M. “Engage Me or Enrage Me.” Educause review. (September 2005).
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