Young Minds, Fast Times: The Twenty-First-Century Digital Learner - Marc Prensky
http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner-technology-2008
Marc Prensky has written an excellent article on the 21st Century Learner. You need to read it.
Throughout the article he has made several observations that I find interesting and challenging.
“During my talks, however, I typically look out at oceans of white hair. Never — I can’t even say rarely — is a kid in sight or invited to the party.”
This is a very interesting statement. I am involved with the Time4Innovation online conference and I can say that each strand or theme does have a student voice. This is an excellent start, but it is only a start. They are a student voice in an adult conference. When are we going to see education conferences for teachers and students. Could you imagine attending a session where the delegates are students and teachers, and where the presenter could be a student? How many of us would feel comfortable with that.
and
“Kids who out of school control large sums of money and have huge choices on how they spend it have almost no choices at all about how they are educated — they are, for the most part, just herded into classrooms and told what to do and when to do it.”
What about this comment..
“when it comes to how we structure and organize our kids’ education, we generally don’t make the slightest attempt to listen to, or even care, what students think about how they are taught.”
If we were to ask our students about learning and the learning environment, what would they say. Would they say “Yes, I like the traditional model of classroom design, desks in rows looking forward, attention focused by design on the whiteboard“. Or would they prefer a flexible learning environment that allows them to collaborate in small groups, with space where they can make notes, display their materials etc. An environment that can easily change between traditional teaching mode, collaborative small group or open space. What about areas to sit comfortably and relax within the space. If we asked them about their preferred learning style would they reply with “chalk and talk“.
Here are some of the students comments from Marc Article.
“There is so much difference between how students think and how teachers think,”
“You think of technology as a tool. We think of it as a foundation — it’s at the basis of everything we do.”
“A lot of teachers make a PowerPoint and they think they’re so awesome, but it’s just like writing on the blackboard.”
A student in Albany, New York, pleaded the case for using technology in the classroom: “If it’s the way we want to learn, and the way we can learn, you should let us do it.”
These are interesting comments. They are insightful. they are challenging. Its well worth reading the article and then re-reading it. This article can be affirming and also challenging.
