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I agree with the majority of Prensky’s statements in this video, however, he doesn’t go much into detail which is probably due to the shortness of the video. Thus, it would be interesting to learn more about his approaches on teaching which would also enable a more thorough evaluation of what he says. As for now, I think what he says forms an important basis for student teaching in the 21st century. It is true that most of the technologies available today have not been at hand when he was a student in school; which probably even still applies to my time in school.
There is one sentence he uttered that really stuck with me: |
I wrote the paragraphs above on Prensky's video before watching Professor Susan Benett's answer about the "dangerous idea of the Digital Natives". It was only then when I realized that there was an actual debate going on. This was interesting for me on many levels because a) I realized again how easy it is to agree with someone who seems to give a well-thought through approach to something although there might be other views to consider and b) I also recognized that I had already begun to make out the points in Prensky's video that Benett criticizes in hers. When googling for a bit on the subject, I came across this definition of Digital Nativism on the platform Urban Dictionary, a dictionary which is not to be taken too seriously but which often gives insight into young people's language and explains terms from pop to hip hop culture, music and film. I think their take on Prensky and the whole debate is rather interesting both on an amusing but also on a serious level. It shows that there is always more than one side to a story:
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However, I do think that children growing up today start using digital tools much earlier than I did, a difference can thus be made, although I think that growing up in today’s society does not mean that all children will be those digital natives that everyone is talking about. There are kids who are not allowed to use a smartphone until they are a teenager or those who are simply not interested in every little gadget on the market – just like some people of my generation had their first phone when they were ten, others when they were sixteen.
When it comes to teaching, I think these differences are important to realize. Moreover, as adults we should not simply assume children know everything about technology because they grow up with it. I think it is important to teach them how to use the digital tools at hand to their advantage as well as means of learning. There is a difference between a child knowing how to use Instagram and connect Netflix to their TV, and a child who knows how to work with a computer, use learning apps, maybe even get started in programming. There are certainly many possibilities to educate students on digital technologies and if we don’t try to get behind this in school, it stops further developing itself and therefore does not fulfill its purpose as the educational institution in our society. |
In this module we ask you to think critically about technology and what assumptions you have. The digital native debate presents some stereotypes about the learners who will use the technology. Discuss these ideas with someone on the course using any suitable digital tools available to you - this could be an online discussion, such as a thread in a conversation or a shared document you work on together.
I worked on this task together with Leenke Wolf, another student from Kiel University who is also taking part in the proPIC project 2019. We chose WhatsApp as the digital tool for our discussion because we use it everday and it felt the most convenient to us. On the right, you can read our conversation about digital natives and what working with digital natives means to us. |