Listen to the Natives

Shanna Rounds
shannarounds@yahoo.com
September 16, 2007

Listen to the Natives
by Marc Prensky

In his article, Mr. Prensky refers to today's students as Digital Natives. The rest of us, not born into the digital world, he refers to as digital immigrants. Mr. Prensky points out the because many teachers are so behind our students in the digital world, we can never really catch up. As a remedy, he suggests that we take the initiative to make our classrooms more like video games, or gameplay. He also insists that we need to not only listen to our students opinions about instruction, but that we should adapt it to suit every student. Further, Mr. Prensky suggests using the students as actual teachers. He goes on to suggest that teachers use cell phones as tools, that schools incorporate programming into the curriculum, and that school should be as engaging as the after school activities in which our students involve themselves.

Top Points in the Article

• Students could learn algebra far more quickly and effectively if instruction were available in game format

• Teachers must put engagement before content when teaching

• Teachers can encourage students to form study groups outside of school, according to who has the best access to technology

• Outside school, students are fully engaged by their 21st century digital lives

• Cell phones have enormous capabilities these days

• The real reason that we ban cell phones is that students would "vote with their attention"...

As a teacher, this article makes me reflect on the kinds of technology I have already experienced during my first few weeks at Sitka High...a young French singer projected from the Internet onto the overhead screen, students at a school dance taking pictures with camera phones and dancing to music played from an i pod connected to a sound system, a DVD of children in Northern Ireland talking about "the troubles." These are just a few examples.

Students are definitely out there in the digital world, programming it, playing in it, and communicating with it. I live in a larger city in Alaska where many families have money to buy cell phones and computers for their children. What about students in villages who do not have cell phones, or cell phone service for that matter? What about students who live in rural Montana who do not have Internet access at home or the means to get to a friend's house to use digital equipment? What about children in inner cities and the rural south who do not have i pods and do not attend schools with digital equipment? Should Africans be spending money on re-charge cards for their cell phones instead of buying food, clothing, and books for their children? Because that is what is happening.

It is wonderful that games can be educational, but games are not the real world. Are our students playing games on their computers instead of getting outside to exercise? Are they sending text messages to a friend down the street instead of walking over to say hi? Have our students become so lazy that we must not only treat them for obesity, but learn to entertain them in the classroom in order to teach them?

I agree with Mr. Prensky on several points. I think we are seeing some definite benefits in the classroom with technological enhancements. We all need to learn to use these resources, which is why I am grateful for this class. However, I will not be convinced that the digital world is the end-all-be-it to bettering our children's education. I like to think that I can and will be one of those inspirational, dynamic teachers to whom children respond well. I also take pride in getting to know students and interacting with them face to face. The day I test a student via text messaging will be a sad one for me.