Blog # 3

Blog # 3

Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives

I undoubtedly fall in the category of digital immigrant. Although I am fascinated and enjoy learning about new technology, I continue to have somewhat of a digital immigrant “accent”. So how will I as a teacher able to teach a digital native anything?
As discussed in Marc Prensky’s article Digital Natives Digital Immigrants , “unless we want to just forget about educating Digital Natives until they grow up and do it themselves, we had better confront this issue. And in so doing we need to reconsider both our methodology and our content.” This addresses #5 of the NETS Standards for Teachers; it is our responsibility to engage in professional growth and leadership. Students of today, aka the digital natives, learn differently and therefore we must approach teaching by methods that they can and are will to receive.
Digital natives “thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards”, “are used to receiving information really fast”, and “like to parallel process and multi-task” (Prensky, pg 2). Therefore, if we do not grab their attention and keep them actively engaged, we are likely to lose their attention. Integrating technology throughout the curriculum will certainly address this issue as well as tie in many of the NETS Standards for Students. For instance, assigning a group project such as a claymation, designing a webpage, or even creating a class newsletter, addresses: creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and use of information, and demonstrates an understanding of technology concepts and operations.
The only issues that I can foresee that may arise with the integration of technology in the classroom is the availability of technological resources to all students. We must be mindful of this fact and allow for equal in class time for students that do not have alternative resources available.
Technology is not only our future, but it is our present. We must learn to apply it in our classrooms if we want our students to succeed.