Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Article Review #1

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

By Marc Prensky

As I first began to read Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky, I

remembered my dad complaining to my siblings and I last night about how much TV we watch.

He was highly upset at the fact that we haven’t seen the face of a library for over seven years.

After reading Prensky’s article, he truly has made me realize how far we've come into the future.

I believe that the digital divide has taken a huge toll on educators and learners. I agree when

Prensky states that students don’t want to learn from their educators merely because their

teachers are not up to date with their students. As a future teacher, I want to make sure that I am

able to accommodate all my students in the new “languages” that will come forth.

I would not consider myself as a “Digital Immigrant” only because when technology

really started to kick in, I was in elementary school. Moreover, I was able to learn and pick up

the new language as it was being created. However, I was exposed to the “pre-digital” period. I

remember having a typewriter in my house when I was about five years old. The digital period

however grew rather fast; it spurred in the course of five to six years. It wasn't until High School

when my teachers were trying new methods of teaching through the use of online space. It is said

that children learn much faster than adults because their minds are constantly working to the

world around them which is why I believe that I learned the language of the digital period much

faster than my parents who still were confused at the fact that there is something called an

internet.

I am sure that as time progress’, I will become the “immigrant” of something new,

therefore I want to make sure that I am constantly learning the new ways of teaching for my

students. I agree with Prensky when he states that teachers should follow the Nike model and

“just do it” instead of complaining about the past and how it was a better lifestyle. Time will

continue to fade away and as time progresses; everyone should begin to develop the new ideas

and ways of their era. However, it will be hard for some teachers to learn the new ways of

teaching but that does not mean that they shouldn't try. As teachers, we should always try to

keep up with the technology advances and techniques so that we can not only be better teachers

but also produce better learners for they are the next generation. When you really start to

imagine about the future it can prove to be a scary place because we are not prepared. The

teachers now who are “digital immigrants” have students in their classrooms that will one day

own a business or be a doctor and we need to prepare them for it is their generation not ours. If

the teachers of today continue to teach the way that they were learned then we are preparing our

students of the future for utter failure and nothing else.

Prensky states, "The presents that we live in, are the futures that our pasts have

imagined.” This is a very strong statement not because of the way it is worded but because of the

amount of truth it holds. We always imagine what our future would turn out to be like however,

we fail to see that our future is the present moment we live in because we've imagined it all in

the past. Furthermore, if we are going to imagine the future then we have to be prepared for the

future and be able to utilize what the future provides us.

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants