The tides are turning; the only thing that is constant is
change itself. Marc Prensky’s article, “Digital
Natives, Digital Immigrants” takes an interesting approach to the future school
scene. Technology over the last fifty years has advanced exponentially. Every
day, it seems, there is something new, and young people under twenty seem to be
the ones to introduce it to the world, or the world to it. As teachers we have
a front-row seat to view these changes. Our
students will be bringing the newest lingo to the classroom, and newest devises
to share with their friends. As teachers we also have an interesting role in
how that new lingo and technology is received, promoted, accepted and propagated.
Our students will be the programmers, developers, and creators of tomorrow’s
technology. We as teachers can suppress and limit its use and acceptance or we
can embrace it, incorporate it, and teach using it. It’s either sink or swim. It
will be interesting to see what the next decade brings and what the classroom
will look like in the next few years.
Yet, I also think, the more things change the more they stay
the same, and “there is nothing new under the sun” Prov. 1:9 (NIV). Some of
what Prensky inferred sounded like science fiction of the fifties and sixties portraying
that by the year 2000 we would be flying around in hoover crafts, and living in
space abodes. Prensky takes a radical approach to the future of education, and
core curriculum. He goes a little too far in saying that, “reading, writing,
arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings and ideas of the past,
etc – all of our ‘traditional’ curriculum,” will become obsolete, and need to
be deemphasized. I think that these things will, and should, continue to have
their place of importance, but I do agree that their delivery can adapt to the
ever blossoming realm of technology.
