Teaching in the Digital Age

I wholeheartedly agree with Marc Prensky when he says, “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.”  I believe this is evident in classrooms across the country.  Although some teachers are unwilling to change and grow, I would venture to guess that most teachers desire to meet students where they are at, and they want to know how to best educate this new generation of kids.  The problem lies in the overwhelming task of learning how to make it happen. 

As teachers struggle with effective teaching methods for Digital Natives, a key component to remember is that students now think differently and process information differently than teachers do.  It is important to keep in mind that their thinking patterns have changed with their digital upbringing.  The articles were helpful in laying out the difference between traditional, slow step-by-step instructions (of digital immigrants) as opposed to quick, networked, parallel processing which digital natives prefer. 

I enjoyed David Warlick’s "A Day in the Life of Web 2.0" and the videos as well.  These all give educators a glimpse into the minds of digital-savvy students.  Even teachers who have only been in the field for 5-7 years experienced a much different digital upbringing than our current students.  The articles and the videos made it clear to me that I am a Digital Immigrant.  I desire to be a life-long learner in this area, but I will admit, it can be intimidating at times!