Blog #3

Blog #3 Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

The idea that students now are identical and should learn in the same ways that their teachers learned when they were students is crazy as suggested by Marc Prensky in the first of his two articles. I remember coming up through school, teachers used to always use the phrase, “back when I was in school….” I always thought to myself and wanted to say out loud, “well guess what? We aren’t back in that time so what does that matter?” Prensky points out that students growing up as these Digital Natives are different than the generation that is teaching them. They are perfectly capable of doing the work and staying focused, but because of the technological wave that they have grown up in, from no fault of their own, they need to be taught in a way that reflects their culture that they have learned. I would argue that the different technological advances with computers, video games, etc… is a part of this generations culture. As we endlessly have discussed in our education classes, it is important to understand each persons culture and try to teach in a way that the child can most effectively learn. For most students in today’s generation, I would argue that this wouldn’t be by teaching the way that the “Digital Immigrants” learned when they were growing up.

For me personally, I believe that I am caught somewhere between the two categories mentioned previously. I still really like having hard copies of important information in a world that is becoming more and more paperless. However, the technology is not foreign to me as I am perfectly capable of interacting through cell phones and the ever-changing social media sites. These articles were interesting to me because I feel like I have some good first hand experience with the different generations and ways of doing things. As a side job while going to school, I coach basketball at the private school that I attended. (This may be kind of a stretch but I think it relates) When I played basketball there, practicing and playing during the season was all we cared about. There weren’t the ‘other’ distractions going on all over the place to worry about. We went to school, did our work, and then spent the rest of the day devoted to working hard for basketball. In just a very short amount of time since I graduated, you can already see the difference in our team now with the way they approach things. They all have facebook, twitter, etc… that they are constantly posting too. It’s very difficult to even keep their attention through a two hour practice each day. Point being, if we can’t even keep their attention in a sport without adapting to their ways of doing things then how can we expect to be able to keep their focus in the classroom by teaching in ways that aren’t the best to suit their more advanced lifestyles.

In the “Reading a Text” article, Moyer brings up a couple of ways that technology has been used to appeal to these Digital Natives. Even since I’ve graduated high school, devices such as the kindle, nook, and Sony reader have become popular ways to read that are attractive to this new generation. The students or whatever readers are still participating in reading but in a way that they don’t feel like they are just holding a book. I think sometimes just holding a piece of technology to read makes it a less painful activity for the students as crazy as that sounds. However, this type of reading or listening to an e-book are no less a form of literacy than reading a hard copy. I feel that it is important to bring the technological advances that are occurring in the real world into the school system. WHY NOT? It only engages student’s brains and allows them to enjoy school a little more. There is nothing wrong with having something enjoyable in the school.

The “Digital Literacies Go To School” article focused on the idea of attempting to combine old and new ideas into the teaching methods in the classrooms today. I thought this was a pretty good way of saying that we can still use some of the old things of the past that have worked previously. Just because the students are changing doesn’t mean everything teachers have ever done needs to be thrown out the window. With that being said, some of the old ways of teaching need to be altered in order to best teach as many students in today’s generation as possible. Because the ultimate goal of being a teacher should be to most effectively teach as many students as possible in a way that will benefit their life. 

Moyer, J. (2011). What Does It Really Mean to "Read" a Text?. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(3), 253-256.

O'Brien, D., & Scharber, C. (2008). Digital literacies: Digital literacies go to school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 66-68.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Prensky. M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-9.