Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Marc Prensky's compares the digital natives, to the digital immigrants. It is definately understandable that it is difficult to teach a group of students using certain media (the internet, powerpont, etc) when the teacher isn't too familiar with it themselves. Sometimes they do not understand the benefit of certain features. New technology, has not only made the learning process more enjoyable, but also more effective. Students are a lot less likely to recall a boring read out of the textbook lecture, than an interactive computer program on the same topic. Digital Immigrants may say it is because tyhe natives are just lazy. Which is not the case. We're privledged to be able to have these tools at our fingertips. In general new inventions come out all of the time that make our lives easier, as well as more convient. We shift towards the techniques that work best, and then try and make those even better. Some of the things that we learn in this age aren't replacable. For example, in this class we've exbraced technology and our weekly assignments are due as postings internet. We are then able and even encouraged to go read each others blog. Being able to do that allows us to see what our classmates are thinking, and without using the blogging tool, we'd be able to do it to a certain extent, however, it would not be quite the same.
The part of the article that I found especially true is the vocabulary. Kids are picking up on it quickly. My four year old cousin the other day asked if we could, 'go to the dot coms he liked'. It is a difficult task to try and teach a group of people who have an entirely different vocabulary than yourself. Sometimes trying to learn from someone in instances like the student pays more attention in attempting to figure out the meaning of the word, that the rest of the teaching is lost. For example, when we saw Juno. Sometimes I would get lost in their language, that I'd miss a line or two because I would be attempting to figure out what the previous one was.

Overall Prensky believes that:
"So if Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change."

I agree with him. It is not just the students that are stuck on the technology culture. The rest of the world is right there with him, and it would be impossible, and pointless to go back in time in terms of teaching.