e-Learning Weekly

In my last blog I referred to the students as being ‘Digital Natives’ and us teachers as “Digital Immigrants”. There is a growing divide between teacher and students in technological ability.  

In J Penny’s blog he suggests our lack of digital experience and skillls may be a result of the lack of technological resources in public high schools. The truth is most government high schoools have a small amount of computers and technology. The question he raises is, if teahcers use this lack of computer access as a excuse not to develop their skills and incorporate  ICT into their lesson plans.

I tend to agree with this notion, especially amongst the older generation of teachers i have bumped into in high school staff rooms. Will their retirement day come before government schools get the Kevin07 computers?

  ‘Digital Natives’

 I have been researching this term ‘Digital Native’ as I am interested in the possible ways of incorporating ICT’s into the classroom with my teen students. I am aware of the next generation and their attachment to all forms of information and communication technology. There are many reasons to use these technologies in education and harness their skills. Personally I feel the possible formats of creating and publishing student work are unlike we have ever seen before. But now I turn to some leading researchers, to see why we should embrace these technologies. I read 2 articles with similar themes, the first by Lee Rainie, ‘Life Online-Teens and technology and the world to come’ and an article by Marc Prensky, ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’.

Why should we embrace new technologies?

I was disappointed as I read about a generation of spoilt brats who want everything their way. Rainie spoke of parents who have given their “trophy kids” every gadget and technology known to man. These digital natives are able to do what they want, where they want and when they want. It would seem now that they communicate less with their parents and other ‘digital immigrants’ and more with their machines. Presnky believes we should continue overindulging these kids with “edutainment”. Due to thousands of hours of television and video games students can no longer concentrate on their studies. We as teachers have to now entertain them.

It was suggested that as digital natives, they have their own language, their own world which they control and set the rules. Rainie uses scare tactics to imply their world is becoming the dominant, the digital natives are taking over and we have no choice. This is not the approach teachers should be taking.

• We should embrace new technologies, not be scared of them or have them forced upon us.

• New formats should be applied when most useful and best support learning.

• This is not a situation of technology for the sake of technology

• We must focus on education – not edutainment

Digital natives, digital immigrants.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–2. 

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