ERIC Number: ED497095
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Aug
Pages: 1
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1094-6675
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
When Digital Natives Come to School
Dyck, Brenda A.
National Middle School Association (NJ3), Middle Ground v10 n1 p22 Aug 2006
As the first generation of students to grow up surrounded by and using digital media comes through the classroom doors, teachers must realize that these students' almost constant interaction with technology has caused them to think and process information differently than students did 10 years ago. Marc Prensky calls today's digital learners Digital Natives and the adults in their lives Digital Immigrants--people who are trying to adapt to the new learning environment but who always have one foot in the past and retain their "accent" or natural tendency to address learning as they did in the past. This immigrant status can cause teachers to make curriculum choices that lack relevancy to their students and to miss using technology in meaningful, forward-thinking ways. Thankfully, Prensky has some advice to offer digital immigrant instructors so that the learning mark isn't missed with their students: (1) Communicate in the language and style of students by learning how to implement a faster paced, more interactive style of presentation; (2) Teach both traditional curriculum (reading, writing, arithmetic, reading comprehension, history, logical thinking) and the content of the future (ethics,politics, sociology, languages, diversity of thought); (3) Invent games--and invite students to invent games--to teach all subjects; and (4) Don't ask whether technology can be used to teach effectively, ask how it can be used. (Contains 5 resources.)
Descriptors: Immigrants, Educational Technology, Computer Literacy, Technology Uses in Education, Teaching Methods, Classroom Techniques, Conventional Instruction, Educational Games, Technology Integration
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Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher; Journal Articles
Education Level: Middle Schools
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A