Prensky Article

Author and Title...
"Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" by Marc Prensky

Some things I understand...
In the Prensky article a comparison is made to the people that learn, (live and thirive off) through the digital age to those who are used to learning the old fashion way with lecture and textbooks. He uses the metaphor of "Digital Native and Digital Immigrant" to compare the two. Points are made about how the two are very different, but that we are in a digital age and it is how the learners of this time learn best. Unfortunately, the digital immigrants are having a hard time adjusting and understand this new time of the technology.

At the beginning of the article was the following quote, "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." The quote is true whether people want to believe it or not. It was a great way to start the article off. Besides discussing the two types of groups/people he does more... He gives an example of how much better and easier people of the digital age learn. The example is from the new CAD software program- the emloyers did not want to adapt and adjust at first because it looked to hard, but after making the learning process into a video game it was much easier and they wanted to do it. This goes to show the importance and difference there is if this type of learning style is used. Not all people of the digital age might want to learn this way, but I bet the majority of them do. Also, I agree and like Prensky's idea that all topics can be taught and turned into a digital learning experience. I cannot wait for the day that all adapt and learn to teach this way. I think it would be fun and interesting. Like Prensky, I think that the digital stuff is not used enough and it really needs to be taken into consideration as a part of learning in the "new way".

I was able to relate to this article and agree with it. I consider myself someone that is a digital native and in school it is sometimes hard knowing that teachers often teach by book and lecture. I believe that technolgy gives a better learning experience and hands on type of learning. As a teacher I hope to encourage my students to technology as much as possible, but to also not forget about reading and learning through discussion.

Some things I don't understand...
> I truly think that I understood everything in the article. I could "see" where the author was coming from with his relationships and metphors as well as be able to make a dicission of agreeing or disagreeing. My though is that I like the article so much because I can directly relate to it, being a digital native. But, I can see where the digital immigrant could be dissapointed or disagree with the article.

> What I would like to better understand is why the digital immigrants are so opposed to learning something new or why the newer generations should learn the old way. I wish they would just give the digital stuff a shot and see how great it is.

Connection to other texts or course themes...
>> I cannot really think of anything off the top of my head to relate this with from class. Oh wait! We use the internet (blogging) as part of our class learning experience... GO Dr. Bogad! We are digital native and you know and understand how we learn best. :-)

>> Also, in one way or another the article can relate to the "Media Matters" assumption, the media is all around us and most people are continually turning to it, using it, and learning from it (good and bad learning).

Questions/Comments/Points to Share...
> What are other peoples outlooks on who should change, the digital native or digital immigrant?

> Is there a point where the two types can meet in the middle?

> I loved this article and was really interested and engaged when reading it!

> I like the titles of digital native and digital immigrant that the author used and I agreed with pretty much all of his points that were made in the article.