Before reading the articles for Module 1, I felt that current students are definitely fundamentally different than those of the past. Current and future students are taught a different set of values and skills to survive in the digital age that weren’t relevant in decades past. They are also equipped with more technology-based tools to find information quickly. Current students can work independently with these tools efficiently. As a result, I believe they are good at locating informative resources but struggle to think critically about the answers they find. I also think social interactions in team activities can be challenging because they are used to working independently more than students of the past.
Prensky’s article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” describes the current state of teaching and curriculum to be ineffective and borderline irrelevant to current students. It was interesting to read because I didn’t notice until reading DT Quin’s blog post that Prensky’s article is already over ten years old! At the time the article was written, Prensky believed that teachers were digital immigrants-- People who were not brought up to be familiar with digital devices. These digital immigrant teachers’ lack of comfort around technology leads them to teach as they have been taught-- From reading books, writing on paper, and listening to lectures. Students, Prensky says, are “digital natives”-- People who have been born into this world surrounded by forms of technology. Like a new language, they slowly assimilate and understand to the tools around them. They feel comfortable processing information quickly and multi-tasking. Prensky believes that the digital immigrant methods of teaching do not cater to multi-tasking and efficient processing, therefore stifling the potential of the digital native learner.
DT Quin’s article, “Response to Prensky’s Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” acknowledges that many of Prensky’s opinions about learning may have been true at the time, but teachers are now evolving to assimilate more into the digital environment. While Quin believes that learners continue to be efficient technology users, he believes that the line between digital natives and digital immigrants is not so clear. Teachers young and old are being trained to respond to the need for multimedia. Incoming teachers are more and more familiar with technology over the course of their lifetime as well. Instead of moving forward to only teach for the future as Prensky wanted, Quin states that the best lessons from the past are still relevant and must continue to be taught. He believes that we are not necessarily teaching students very many new concepts but instead teaching them new methods of learning old concepts.
After reading both articles, I still feel that students methods of learning have fundamentally changed. They have new tools to get many forms of information faster. Many prior methods of obtaining knowledge seem ineffective in comparison to using the internet and wifi-read devices for research. After realizing that students have fundamentally changed, I think it is also important to consider the fundamental changes in teaching styles. Quin’s article begins to touch on this idea near the end. He expresses support for Prensky’s ideas that education must keep up with future jobs and technologies but also expresses a need for students to learn traditional concepts as well. Therefore, if we are going to consider students as fundamentally changed, I think it is due to the technology that is available to them and also the evolving methods and curriculum that we teach.
I appreciate your point about today's students needing survival skills that are vastly different than those of past decades. As a society with information waiting at our fingertips, we forget there are social norms and etiquette we must follow, especially with cyber bulling and accessibility online. Is this what you meant when you discussed survival skills in the first paragraph?
ReplyDeleteYou are not the only one that did not notice the date on Prensky's article! I was shocked to read that in the DT Quin blog post. After rethinking his article in the correct context, his statements make more sense. I highly critiqued the article the first time I read it.
Finally, I mulled over the word 'fundamental' when constructing my response. My initial reaction to the question paralleled your thoughts. Students are different today than in the past because of the rise of technology and their access to information. However, as I began to analyze the question, I thought 'fundamental' referred to the basic needs of the students- to learn and be responsible for their own knowledge- which I believe remains the same. Maybe I am digging too deep into the meaning of the question? I completely agree that technology has had a strong impact on education. Yet, doesn't the goal of education stay consistent over time?
Dig deep, Chelsea, there's nothing wrong with that! This question of what is meant by "fundamental" is an excellent point. Has human nature changed? Have brains changed because of technology? Are we perhaps giving technology too much credit?
DeleteHi Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteWhen I spoke about survival skills, several things came to mind: job skills, school safety, and internet safety and etiquette to name a few.
I also questioned the meaning of the word "fundamental." When I wrote my post, I considered the word to refer to the evolution of mindsets and values in the students. How do they think about learning and how do they currently absorb new information? In this context, I think students are fundamentally different than learners of the past due to the availability and influence of technology. However, I realized that if the reader were to perceive present-day learners being "fundamentally different" than those of the past to mean how they respond to school environments, I could see where you would think students are still the same. They still need guidance, coaching, motivation, and structure.
Maura-
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you mentioning the issue of how students absorb new information. This is highly important, and I did not even give it one thought. As teachers, we always need to know the best practices to ensure our students are truly absorbing the information. Thank you for the reminder!