Reflection on Prensky’s Ideas

I find the concept of digitial ‘singularity’ proposed by  Prensky (2001, p.1) interesting. More than ever before, there seems to be a mismatch between the learning paradigm held by teachers and the world that learners live in.

Although I find it difficult to believe that technology has induced a physical change in learner’s brains, kids these days do seem to think and process information differently. They are definitely socialised into technology, although software also seems to be becoming increasingly intuitive.

I (unfortunately) consider myself a digital immigrant, so this course and indeed my future as a teacher who integrates ICT into my pedagogy (with any luck) will be a steep learning curve. I read Prensky’s papers with a slight internal cringe, as I recognised my own strong ‘accent’! Undoubtedly, I will have the opportunity to learn a lot from my students over the coming years!

Much of the learning dogma from my own school days (e.g. delayed gratification, one step at a time, practice makes perfect) I realise is now relatively outdated in today’s fast-moving information age. One thing that is still the same, however, is that learning should be fun. As to the validity of the “engage or enrage” argument, I guess in the noisy, sensual overload that is today’s technology, it is critical that teachers make the educational experience something worth paying attention to. As surmised by Margaryan and Littlejohn (2008), I suspect that many children don’t comfortably fit within the ‘kids that tune us out’ category painted by Prensky (2005, p. 60), and realistically sit anywhere on the continuum between technologically illiterate to digital genius. In practice, the reaction of modern students to outdated teaching methodology is more likely to simply be disinterest or frustration, rather than rage. That said, the last thing I would wish for is to be seen by learners as a ‘dinosaur’ they cannot relate to.

What will this mean for me as a teacher? Well I think it will mean keeping an open mind, being flexible and adaptive. It will mean challenging my own preconceptions about the nature of knowledge and the relative value of some types of knowledge or sources of information over others. It will also mean accepting that there are many more ways of knowing than what I was taught through my formal education. The focus will become more about the process than the end product. Essentially, I will have to be the old dog that learnt a new way of doing its’ tricks!

References

Margaryan, A. and Littlejohn, A. (2008). Are digital natives a myth or reality?: Students use of technologies for learning.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Prensky, M. (2005). “Engage me or enrage me”: What today’s learners demand. Educause Review, September/October 2005, 60-64.