2. Introduction
“Our Students have changed radically. Today’s students are no
longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” -
Marc Prensky
Prensky feels there is a huge discontinuity between our
generation and our teacher’s generation.
Coins two terms: Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, to
simplify the discussion.
3. Digital Natives
The “native speakers” of the digital language of computers,
video games and the Internet have been defined as Digital
Natives
Some of the characteristics that define them includes fast
information reception, parallel processing, multitasking,
prefers graphics over text, instant gratification and frequent
rewards, believers of fun with learning rather than serious
work.
4. Digital Immigrants
Definition: Are those not born into the digital generation and
are struggling or slightly fascinated by the technology era.
Characteristics:
Turn to the internet as a secondary reference.
Speak in an outdated language
Have little appreciation for natives and their skills
5. Read manuals when in doubt about technology rather than
just go and wing it method
Are the majority of our teaching population and struggling to
keep up with the young digital natives that fill up our
classrooms
6. Problem?
Considering the characteristics, problem arises when the
digital immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same
as they have always been and that the same methods that
worked for the teachers when they were students will work
for their students too.
7. Kinds of Content
There are now two kinds of content: “Legacy” and “Future”
content.
Legacy content includes reading, writing, arithmetic, logical
thinking, understanding the writings and the ideas of the past
- all of our traditional curriculum.
Future content includes software, hardware, robotics,
nanotechnology, genomics, etc.
8. Why is content important?
Educators need to be thinking how to teach both Legacy and
Future content in the language of Digital Natives.
Legacy content involves the major translation and change or
methodology; Future content involves legacy content along
with new content and thinking.
9. The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy
1. CAD Software- mechanical engineers - resistance, first
person shooter game, learn software to win game
2. The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy- widely used, 1 million
copies in print & several languages
3. Invented by digital natives- easy
4. Content creation by Digital immigrants- difficult
10. Rethinking Education
1. Rethinking Education- use of calculators in Mathematics,
better presentation in Geography
2. “Thought experiments”
3. Author argues- Digital Natives will have to change
12. Neuroplasticity
It was earlier believed that the human brain doesn’t change based on stimulation especially after
the age of 3.
In latest research it is proved that the brain does change over time and structures affects the way
people think and this transformation goes on throughout life.
The old idea was that we have a fixed number of brain cells that die one by one has been
replaced showing that brain cells are constantly replenished.
The brain constantly reorganizes itself all our lives and this is known as neuroplasticity.
13. Neuroplasticity
The earlier research in this field that rats in enriched environments showed brain changes with
those in impoverished environments as early as two weeks.
Changes showed consistent overall growth, leading to the conclusion that the brain maintains
plasticity for life.
Many other experiments have some conclusions that:
Additional languages learned later in life goes into a different place than the language learned as
children.
Imaging experiments have shown that when blind people learned Braille,”visual” areas of their
brains lit up. Similarly deaf people use their auditory cortex to read signs
14. Malleability
Different Cultures, Think Differently
Brains that undergo different experiences,develop differently
The brains thinking patterns do not just change overnight
Children raised by computers have parallel cognitive
structures
Digital natives with their repeated exposure to digital media
have enhanced thinking skills
15. Conclusion
Attention Spans
Short attention spans of digital natives old methods of
learning
Attention stronger on things that interest, engage and are
fast for them
What have we lost?
The ability to reflect. He process of learning experience.
High speed, hence bored of old learning methods
Teachers have not adapted to the methods to teach the
natives
16. Conclusion
What have we lost?
The ability to reflect. He process of learning experience.
High speed, hence bored of old learning methods
Teachers have not adapted to the methods to teach the
natives
Does it work?
adding gaming to the curriculum ( well structured)
Further research to be conducted in the area
