As a digital native, I very readily put this assignment to the side after previewing the assignment but after focusing long enough to read the article, I actually enjoyed it. Marc Prensky had a well-balanced amount of information, humor, and suggestions.
I really enjoyed reading his depiction of the gap between generations. I agree that teachers need to update their teaching techniques. Good things work for a while, but even they need an occasional tune-up. I think even adding little things such as video clips, fun trivia, or anything to give their students a change of pace in thinking will help their students. Digital natives are so used to multi-tasking that when they are in the classroom, they are forced to solely concentrate on one task which could be very difficult.
The only time I read something is when I am passionate about the subject or very willing to learn more about it. The only time I learn from my readings is when it is delivered interestingly. Education is my major but let's be serious, most of these education articles are the most boring pieces of reading materials I've ever read! Like Prensky said, learning does not have to be boring. The more you enjoy something, the more you will remember it.
Even introducing digital natives to the original versions of their tools will spark education. Who would ever imagine that a computer the size of a room would become more efficient and do more tasks while fitting into your back pocket? What about music? 8 tracks are a thing of the past, cassettes are practically obsolete and CDs are slowly becoming another dying music medium. I think the only people who own vinyls today are DJs, collectors, and people of that generation.
They can even go as far back to the Romans and Greeks, where music was obtained through a musician up to MP3 players of today.
A recent experience I had with classroom learning was in Biology. This professor lectured for the entire 50 minutes. She talked so fast and about something I did not understand much about that it just went in one ear and out the other. Her slides weren't even interesting; it was just a paragraph of what she was saying. I seriously thought I was going to fail this class until I popped in the CD-ROM that came with the textbook. On it were activities I could play, video demonstrations of what she was saying and through this, I actually understood and learned Biology.
In conclusion, digital immigrants and digital natives need to find a middle ground where they are both comfortable. Digital immigrants do not need to change their pedagogy entirely, just to make it technologically efficient. Small changes, such as having proper slides (not too crowded; bullets, illustrations, etc.) to accompany a lecture would make a significant difference in the amount of students who actually learned something from the lecture. The variety will keep students paying attention and the pictures will help with memorization.
Learning is the door to education. Proper teaching is the key.
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I definitely agree with you when you said that “good things work for a while, but even they need an occasional tune-up”. I think that since things are changing all the time, especially technology, teachers and their methods need to keep up with the times. A lesson that worked a few years ago for a teacher may not work as well for their new class if new information and techniques are coming into play.
I also like how you brought up the point of how “the more you enjoy something, the more you will remember it”. I can say that I definitely only remember things that I found were enjoyable to learn. With things I don’t find interesting I usually just memorize the information just to pass the class which results in not retaining any of the information. However, if I learn something in a way that is memorable I have a much easier time recalling the information. I guess if your biology teacher taught in a more enjoyable way you would have had an easier time remembering the information. It’s a good thing though you found that CD-ROM. It just proves how great technology can be for our learning, even if the teacher isn’t that great!
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