Marianita Lemma

Portrait of a Digital Native

In the article “Digital Native, Digital Immigrants” the author, Marc Prensky, discusses that students today (in grades K through college) represent the first generation exposed to a rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century, and the first generation to grow up with technology. This new generation has spent countless of hours with video games, cell phones, iPods, television, emails, AIM, and all the other toys, gadgets and tools of the digital age. They have spent more hours with digital toys than actually reading in their lives.

He goes on to explain that today’s students have changed dramatically. They are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. He says “What should we call these ‘new’ students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation he has found for them is Digital Natives. Students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computer, video games and the Internet.”

So what are the rest of us called since we did not grow up with technology at our fingertips? He called us “Digital Immigrants” He explains that as “Digital Immigrants” we learn like all immigrants, some better than others adapt to their environment, they always retain to some degree, their “accent”, that is their foot in the past. So, in other words, whenever we are looking for some information how to use a specific program we look into the manual rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us how to use it. He goes on to say that the “digital immigrant accent” can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first. He goes on to explain that this is a very serious issue, because the single biggest problem facing education today is that “our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language”.

In summary, we as teachers have not kept up with technology. Our “Digital Natives” are used to receiving information right away because that’s the environment in which they were raised. They are always multi-tasking to get everything done, especially when it comes to homework. They thrive on instant information or anything that has to do with technology. The old way of teaching is no longer acceptable with the new world of technology that is at our hands. Many teachers do not embrace technology. This is a totally new skill that they have to learn, like learning a new language. Many of them are “technology handicapped.” This is true in my school district. I know that many teachers don’t like using technology and they do not embrace it. Perhaps the reason is because learning new skills sometimes is scary. The other problem is that many school districts don’t have the money or the capability to offer technology. The technology world is constantly and rapidly changing and when some schools update their technology, tomorrow or a year from now, that technology will be obsolete. I think that many school districts will continue to lag or fall behind. This is a difficult issue because technology is expensive and the only way for school districts to get it is by raising taxes. I really don’t know the extent to where people are going to say enough is enough.


Resources

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky
From On the Horizon (NBC University press, Vol. 9 No. e, October 2001)
See also: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 2: The scientific evidence behind the Digital Native’s thinking changes, and the evidence that Digital Native-style learning works!
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and game designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001), founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, and founder of The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He is also the creator of the sites www.SocialImpactGames.com
www.DoDGameCommunity.com and www.GamesParentsTeachers.com
Marc Prensky holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp
Contact Marc at marc@games2train.comhttp://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf#search='Article%20about%20Digital%20Native%20by%20Marc%20Prensky

Marianita Lemma

Multimedia Instructional Tools

The more I read about integrating technology in education, the more I want to do it. I think technology can be a wonderful tool for teaching children of all ages and of different learning aptitudes and it is here to stay.

In the article “Learning Italian with Podcasting” the author was always skeptical about the value of podcasting in education. But Steve Burt had a change of heart when he discovered an impressive podcast for learning Italian. http://www.learnitalianpod.com/.
He has found that this technology is a great tool to learn Italian by devoting only 10 minutes a day. He discussed how the podcast was easy to understand and use. I have actually listened to the podcast, even though I do not speak Italian and I found it to be an excellent tool. This is also a great resource for students who are learning Italian.

Podcasting would be an excellent tool for me as a Spanish teacher. I would love to integrate podcating as one of the technology tools for my Spanish classes. For example, right now we are reading stories. I can podcast my stories and do the questions and answers (exercises) on podcasting. If and when my students are absent they can always go in the podcast and listen to what they have missed. This will also help with students who are shy in class and who normally do not want to ask any questions in class.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/Multimedia_Instructional/index.cfm
http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2006/04/001396.php