Marc Prensky Reaction
October 21, 2009
Karen Craig
Because of my age I am a Digital Immigrant, and actually pretty close to an alien, if I compare myself to kids in school today. I don’t have an iphone, I don’t play video games, and up until a few days ago, I had never written a blog. Not because I think these are bad things, I just don’t have the desire to do them. Marc Prensky says in Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, “Those of us who are Digital immigrants can, and should, laugh at ourselves and our ‘accent’”. I am not ashamed of my accent, and I do laugh at it, right along with my kids.
Thinking back to my high school days, the only technology I remember was the simulator cars in driver’s education. Technology was not part of my learning at all. In college, I had a typewriter! We had designated times to show up to Mac Court to register for our classes by waiting in long lines. I know this information dates me, but it doesn’t mean I “have very little appreciation for these new skills that the Natives have acquired and perfected through years of interaction and practice”, as Pensky states on page 2.
What I have no appreciation for is the destructiveness brought on by hackers, predators, identity thieves, and just mean spirited people on the internet. I know that thieves, predators, and mean spirited people are out walking the streets too, I just feel like it will be more difficult for me to protect my kids from it when they are on the computer.
Prensky says on page 6 of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, “So if Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change”. I ask; does everything have to change? Does everything have to be digital? How about PE? Do I need to come up with a computer game that will teach my students the bench press?
No doubt these kids’ lives are different from the way I grew up, and we need this technology and absolutely should use it in the classroom as much as possible. But does every curriculum have to be turned into a game?
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You make some good points here. I think there needs to be a balance and honestly am not sure that we need to have traditional tech in PE. Perhaps showing students a heart monitor or blood pressure apparatus or something along those lines. The other things you mentioned, about keeping kids safe, is always on my mind. It seems like it is so much easier to be a predator online then in person, maybe even some who would never do something mean in the open will do it online! Something we all need to be aware of.
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