After reading Marc Prensky's article I had a few mixed emotions. I really enjoyed reading what Marc was saying about the Digital Natives and the Digital Immigrants and I completely agree how there are some professors that I have been in contact with you just don't agree with the way students learn or feel that they need to learn the language that we use when referring to different medias. It is hard to go into a classroom sometimes with a teacher who feels that the students need to "dumb down" just to be in the class and understand what the teacher is talking about. Students should never have to dumb down or turn off their minds and thinking just to be able to understand a teacher. There needs to be a middle ground that students and teachers can meet at for this area. Digital Natives know alot more about digital topics and are able to speak in a different language than Digital Immigrants.
One of the things that I did not agree with the whole creating a game to allow the students to feel as if they are in the time period of history. One example that Marc Prensky gave was the Holocaust and allowing the students to feel the true horror of what happened. I think that there are better ways to allow students to understand and remember the information from that part of history. Why should such a horrible part of history be simulated for students to understand. Such as a digital field trip to a museum. Some museums have exhibits and things online that you can go through virtually. This was one thing that I did not agree with. I do like the idea of allowing students to use video games and such to learn about topics. There are already games and different medias that are available for students to use. In younger age groups, Leap Frog is a big electronic and media based game that students can use for different subject matter.
There is so much that can be done to bridge the gap between the Digital Native and the Digital Immigrant. The only thing is is that Digital Immigrants need to be willing to meet on this ground as well as the Digital Natives be willing to take some time to explain and teach the Digital Immigrants.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I also agree about the idea of creating a game about the Holocaust. It just seems that something so gruesome and horrible should not be made into a game. There are so many movies and documentaries that can teach students about the Holocaust and really show them what it was all about. To turn something like that into a game is almost like mocking the idea of teaching about in classrooms. I also agree that students should not have to “dumb themselves down” when walking into a classroom. The teacher simply needs to catch up with the currents times. It is possible for Digital Immigrants to learn to think and use the same technologies like digital natives.
Post a Comment