- Mahatma Gandhi

It’s been around since 2001, and has been talked about and referred to at almost every Educational Technology conference I’ve been to since that time. The terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” are now thrown around so frequently that it doesn’t even need to be explained any more.

Prensky’s thinking about effective ways to reach today’s students continues to evolve. He continues to work to apply some of his thoughts from this, his most famous article, to different contexts.

I highly recommend checking out his website. I have just perused it a bit, and really wish I had more time to read more of his stuff right now, but I really must get to sleep soon.

Some of the books and articles that I have also read, or at least are on my list to read are the following (he really chooses great titles, doesn’t he?):
Engage Me or Enrage Me
Don’t Bother Me, Mom — I’m Learning! (his latest book)
…there are many more… I sometimes just love to look at the titles of articles and books, and get an extremely brief version of the main thought of the writing. This is one reason I love to hang out in bookstores so much.

His writing is full of eye-opening quotes, not from philosophers or theologians, but simple statements from these Natives that he has provided such clarity about.

Why am I finally getting around to responding to this article? This week I’m going through SB 472 training, which is a California “thing” (SB meaning Senate Bill) where we get a week of training on our new textbook, in this case, Math. This article was assigned as homework one of the days.

OK, so what do I think of the article itself? Here are the specific points that I found particularly striking, amusing, etc.:

•The phone call asking “DId you get my email?” has happened at my school. We’ve talked about reducing the interruptions to the classroom (silent emails being much less disruptive than a phone call), but viewing this not as annoying defeating the purpose, Prensky has reminded me that the office personnel is probably “speaking with an accent” here

•I was amazed at how proficient my students were at playing certain games they showed me on the internet during the last few days of school, one being Club Penguin. TypeRacer is another example that was spontaneously very successful. Ever since becoming familiar with Prensky’s thinking, and other progressive, forward-thinking experts in educational technology, I have had a passion for trying to figure out how to “get rid of my accent”, and how to best use the “language” of my students, the digital natives, to reach them. I want to figure out how to use games to make learning more engaging, since this is what I am, in fact, competing with. I will be seen as boring and irrelevant if I don’t learn to speak their “language.” We must “engage them or enrage them.” This is more than pithy, clever sayings. This is for real. This is why I get grouchy about those that insist on our students learning the culture of the Digital Immigrants:

•It’s very tempting to conclude, as Prensky “quotes”, My students just don’t ___ like they used to,” etc. What we need to do is to recognize that they ARE DIFFERENT THAN US. We need to change and adapt. We need to learn from them, as well as them learning from us.

•”‘Future’ content includes the ethics, politics, sociology, languages, and other things that go with the software, hardware, etc.” This is one reason I would like to see a more loose policy on cell phones at school. We need to teach them how to appropriately use them (or, in most cases, NOT use them) I experimented with having my students use their cell phones as calculators, but ran into some problems with some very valid issues that administration brought up. Even so, it saddened me that we couldn’t bring some of the technology that they see as absolutely relevant in their lives into the classroom learning experience. I saw many of my students kind of “come alive” when I validated some of their “native” culture. It’s a sticky one…very interesting…

•He mentions games to teach concepts like classical philosophy, the Holocaust, etc.  This renewed my enthusiasm to try and find game to help teach concepts to my students. He acknowledges that many of the attempts at this have been pretty bad (edutainment), but that we must continue to improve, because WE CAN FIGURE THIS OUT! One game that has been successful “in” my 6th grade classroom has been Civilization. Since I teach Ancient Civilizations, this is an IDEAL application. No, I can’t use class time for it. But I can offer a copy or two for checkout to my students. I can refer to it when we’re discussing content from our textbook. I can encourage students to get together in the classroom after school, or at each other’s houses , to play it together. I can affirm the expert in my room who knew about it before I even mentioned it, and had a more advanced version than I did; I can ask him to share with the class what the game taught him about ____ (filling in the concept that we were studying that day).

I’m far from figuring out how to apply Prensky’s thoughts to my own classroom practice, but I feel good about how I’ve started to experiment…

PS – David Thornburg and Hall Davidson have both written recently about Prensky’s thoughts. Thornburg expressed some reasons that Prensky’s thesis is incomplete, inadequate, and/or inaccurate. Davidson sided with Prensky, and did a great job of expressing why. This discussion took place in the OnCUE Journal, published by CUE, Computer Using Educators, with Thornburg writing an article, then Davidson and Thornburg both writing a letter to the editor, continuing the conversation. This will really be something to watch. These guys are both such great thinkers and leaders, I’m not sure I know which one I agree with!! I guess I’ll live in the tension…

On Wednesday, Pi day, we had an Albert Einstein look-alike contest. I was crazy and brave enough to really go all out for this one.

We also sang a song together about Pi. I got the idea from this website. We were also amused, but a little freaked out by, this song:

At exactly 3/14, 1:59 and 26 seconds, my students made as much racket as possible! I had brought in my congas, mini-djembes, tambourine, etc., etc. Some of my students had brought in their band instruments like trumpets, etc. I gave my neighbor-teacher fair warning about the inevitable disruption this noise would cause! She decided to have her students join in the joviality.

When I wasn’t Albert Einstein, I wore this shirt a couple of days.

To my surprise, my colleagues didn’t just think it was cool or nerdy… They were all jealous! They wished I would have told them how to buy one for themselves long enough ago so we could all wear them together! How cool is THAT?!

One of my colleagues did have one. Here’s a couple of pictures of us wearing them.

The dream was dependent on my student having internet access when she was in India. Turns out, she didn’t have access. So, alas, my dream was not yet realized. However, the fact that I was able to think that way, and come up with that plan was really an important learning/growing experience for me.

I do have some positive news to report, though. One of my top students, also one of my most “online” students, has been sick for a few days. She has tended to blog quite a bit, and does so from home most of the time. Since we are working on a project right now where the students are in pairs, her presence in class is becoming more and more missed by her partner!

I decided to email her parents and ask if it’s possible, if she could find her notes about the project, and type them up on our class wiki. This way, her partner (who didn’t have any of the notes) could continue with the project! We’ll see how this turns out…

She’ll probably show up at school tommorow, making this entirely un-dramatic, but again…..the idea is what’s interesting!!

Great point!
I was just about to reflect on this general point myself. I see my own blog as sort of a resource for those teachers that I’m helping to see the benefit of maintaining a professional blog, and for blogging with their students.

To convince a teacher that blogging is worth it, that it helps us grow as professional educators, helps us to do our job, and unleashes lots of energy, learning, and growth between educators…..this point is very helpful.

Blogging myself helps me keep track of my own learning. The more I blog, the more I develop a sense that, “I’m onto some important learning here – I should blog about this.” Then, as I’m writing the blog, I deepen my understanding as I put my reflections into words, that solidifies the learning.
As you point out, a very important side benefit is that others can learn from your reflection!

Sorry if my reflections here are a “duh!” no brainer for those of you reading that are more experienced in the edublogosphere, but this just resonated with me, and stimulated me to express my thoughts more completely.

I thought I’d share it here.

My new friend remembers being called “wetback”, and related to me how this recent flare up of immigration issues (May 1st protests, etc.) has affected her, her students, and her colleagues. Racism and ignorance, unfortunately, are alive and well. We need to believe in our students, because for some, the come to us with so many strikes against them, including their home life, where they grew up, their race, their poverty, or whatever. They very often inadvertently believe that since they come from where they come from, they can’t make it in this world, and that they will never be able to get out of this kind of lifestyle.

We need to believe in our students. However, we must be sincere about it. She related how, during this recent political tension, some of her colleagues weren’t being respectful or hopeful about their students. Most of them probably give some sort of message of hope to their students, however, what she has heard recently told her that all of those statements of hope aren’t sincere. How devastating it would have been if she found out that her Kindergarten teacher was giving here false or insincere hope!

Many blogs that I read and podcasts that I listen to focus on the use of technology in the classroom. To a large degree, I suppose that I will be doing that, as well, but I hope that I don’t get lost in the glitz and newness of what’s going on in education, like web 2.0, that I forget some of these foundational truths. I hope that I continue to make meaningful connections with my students and instill in them important values and belief in themselves.

As I introduced the concept of blogging to my class, I tried to help them to see that blogging in the classroom was something that I was learning right alongside them.
I made the point that, “When you stop learning, a very important part of you dies.”

This came to mind again during Christmas vacation, because as I type this, I am nearing completion on my Master’s Thesis. I feel such a sense of satisfaction that I am almost done with it. Seeing the total number of pages that it’s turned out to be, reflecting on the points that I have made in my Thesis, and all that it represents with regard to my experience and learning… All of these make me feel very much alive!

So whether you’re in school or not, take your opportunities to learn seriously! It is a rush that you can’t duplicate any other way!