"Listen to the Natives" -- Marc Prensky

Do today's educators and today's students live in the same culture?

They exist in the same physical world, but more and more, it is the virtual world which is becoming relevant to the educational process. In fact, in his article, "Listen to the Natives" Marc Prensky divides teachers and students into two classes--Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives. Today's students are born into a digital world, and they grow up speaking and thinking digital. Teachers, on the other hand, have immigrated into this digital world, and not always willingly. The results is a divide which renders traditional teaching methods obsolete and ineffective. Fortunately, Mr. Prensky holds out hope for our educational system. If teachers can shift their focus in a few areas and modify their approach to teaching, not only can students still be reached, they can be instrumental in developing their own education.

How do we do this?

• Select teachers for empathy and guidance skill, not just subject-matter knowledge.
• Put student engagement before content.
• Involve students in designing their own instruction. Help them educate themselves.
  
• Focus less on teaching, and more on leading.
  

Why do we do this?

• Only a small portion of teachers are likely to be as tech-savvy as their students. By guiding students, teachers allow students to use their own skills as educational aides.
• In the digital world, engagement is everything. To have relevance, teachers must engage their students. Rather than compete for attention with digital devices, teachers must leverage those devices and technologies to engage students.
• In many ways, students have a better sense of the future than teachers. By involving them in the design of their own instruction, teachers are effectively using students as a invaluable resource that can't be bought for any price, but is begging to be used.
• In the old paradigm, teachers needed to be "smarter than the students" in whichever subject was being taught. Technology has become so integrated with life in the 21st century however, that it is proving impossible to segregate it from education. When students are more tech-smart than teachers, the smart teacher guides the students direction while allowing them to use the tech-tools along the way.

On a more personal note, this article strikes a strong resonant chord with me. I'm young enough to be a bit of a "tweener" between a Digital Native and a Digital Immigrant. I arrived on the tech scene at the same time as Netscape 1.0. Mr. Prensky makes hugely compelling arguments that I completely agree with. Kids now are growing up in a completely different way than in the past, and it's still changing every day. To try to lock kids into a mode of learning, or lock them out of using what's familiar to them sounds like a recipe for disaster--analogous to forcing a left-handed child to use a pen right-handed. Not only is it foolish, but also pointless. Besides, kids will need this technological aptitude after our time with them is done. As Prensky puts it, "Educating or evaluating students without these tools makes no more sense to them than educating or evaluating a plumber without his or her wrench."

Ironically, my teaching position is on a remote island with no cell phone coverage and very little technological exposure. Kids here are more familiar with fishing nets and chain-saws than cell phones or computers. Still, many of these concepts are still relevant. The idea of "leveling-up", or beating a game to go to the next level is something these kids thrive on. Avoiding the "herding" of students, and instead letting them into the design of their instruction is a fabulous idea. Indeed, while my challenge may be more along the lines of getting them exposed to technology so they can transition into the digital world if and when they leave the island, they are still part of a generation which expects things to be different. They are isolated, not tuned-out, and Prensky's final warning still hold true:

"If we don't stop and listen to the kids we serve, value their opinions, and make major changes on the basis of the valid suggestions they offer, we will be left in the 21st century with school buildings to administer—but with students who are physically or mentally somewhere else."

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