Digital Natives
Yes our students are absolutely Digital Natives.
Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Todays “ students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place
Today‟s students through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.
It is now clear that todays students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. These differences go far further and deeper than most educators suspect or realize. “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures, “ says Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine. As we shall see in the next installment, it is very likely that our students’ brains have physically changed – and are different from ours – as a result of how they grew up. But whether or not this is literally true, we can say with certainty that their thinking patterns have changed.
What should we call these “new” students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation found for them is Digital Natives. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.
Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work. (Marc Prensky Digital Natives Digital Immigrants ©2001 Marc Prensky )
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Does NET Help Children Learn?
NET and its importance in society is increasingly recognised. This is highlighted in a recent report.(Cook and Smith, 2002).
Although NET is challenging and requires instructors and learners to adapt, it can be an effective way to learn about concepts, and model the principles and ideology that are at the core of education..
In the past Education were delivered through traditional, in – classroom methods which allowed for interaction between the lecturer and the students. Now learning via the NET is available and can be the preferred choice of individuals. The intent of teaching via NET is to teach the concepts within an environment that model the ideology and principles, particularly high-level participation or engagement and empowerment.
NET offers new opportunities for both educators and learners to enrich their teaching and learning experiences, through virtual environments that support not just the delivery but also the exploration and application of information and the promotion of new knowledge.. NET enables learners to have as much choice as is practically and economically possible
NET emphases on the constructivist use of technologies which provides students with opportunities to construct their own understandings. Skinners’s behaviourism. Piaget’s cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky’s social constructivism can all be facilitated through NET Tam (2000)
The NET uses collaborative learning strategies which allows students to have a voice, to feel safe articulating fears and ideas and to learn collectively, critically and in consultation with teachers who are there to facilitate, challenge and guide students to take an active role in constructing knowledge.
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In addition NET supports the achievement of the New Zealand curriculum by facilitating knowledge and skills acquisition During school years and beyond, learners will engage in endless opportunity to learn on their own. The use of NET will continue to evolve and there is a need to ensure that NET is adapted into our curriculum.
The NET today is the bedrock of the future. It promotes communication, fosters interaction, and is becoming an increasingly important entity in modern society. It provides us access to a lot of information and offers profound opportunities to exercise creativity. Yet looking ahead, it is but one milestone. Just in business today are finding the NET to be worthwhile and lucrative pursuit, I trust we educators will find the NET more and more rewarding in our mission to empower learners through learning.
Although NET is challenging and requires instructors and learners to adapt, it can be an effective way to learn about concepts, and model the principles and ideology that are at the core of education..
In the past Education were delivered through traditional, in – classroom methods which allowed for interaction between the lecturer and the students. Now learning via the NET is available and can be the preferred choice of individuals. The intent of teaching via NET is to teach the concepts within an environment that model the ideology and principles, particularly high-level participation or engagement and empowerment.
NET offers new opportunities for both educators and learners to enrich their teaching and learning experiences, through virtual environments that support not just the delivery but also the exploration and application of information and the promotion of new knowledge.. NET enables learners to have as much choice as is practically and economically possible
NET emphases on the constructivist use of technologies which provides students with opportunities to construct their own understandings. Skinners’s behaviourism. Piaget’s cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky’s social constructivism can all be facilitated through NET Tam (2000)
The NET uses collaborative learning strategies which allows students to have a voice, to feel safe articulating fears and ideas and to learn collectively, critically and in consultation with teachers who are there to facilitate, challenge and guide students to take an active role in constructing knowledge.
.
In addition NET supports the achievement of the New Zealand curriculum by facilitating knowledge and skills acquisition During school years and beyond, learners will engage in endless opportunity to learn on their own. The use of NET will continue to evolve and there is a need to ensure that NET is adapted into our curriculum.
The NET today is the bedrock of the future. It promotes communication, fosters interaction, and is becoming an increasingly important entity in modern society. It provides us access to a lot of information and offers profound opportunities to exercise creativity. Yet looking ahead, it is but one milestone. Just in business today are finding the NET to be worthwhile and lucrative pursuit, I trust we educators will find the NET more and more rewarding in our mission to empower learners through learning.
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