Video games, smart phones and social networks play a fundamental role in youngsters´ lives. Through those digital resources and devices they can interact, share and exchange information in ways we, people born in the 90´s and those from older generations could have never imagined. So as to explain how this has come to change our lives, it is noteworthy that we introduce the terms Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Coined by Mark Prensky (2001) to address the differences present between people born in the digital era and those who were not, it can be said that such a situation has a number of implications for education and as a result it challenges traditional teaching and learning beliefs.
When reading the article we found the distinction the author makes between Legacy and Future content particularly attractive. The first involves a major translation and change of methodology; the second involves all that PLUS new content and thinking. We agree with Prensky´s argument because technology, has come to revolutionise our lives in many different aspects and this is not a minor concern in the field of education.
Personally speaking and considering Prensky's arguments, we are supposed to fall into the Digital Immigrants category. Even though as future educators we have the responsibility to take into account digital content because technology embodies our students' sociocultural background,it should not be overlooked the existence of more urgent issues in the educational systems of many countries such as poor building conditions, lack of heating and cooling appliances, to mention a few.
To conclude, it cannot be denied that technology offers great opportunities to innovate and make teaching and learning more engaging in the 21st century.Nevertheless,this does not imply that we should dispose of old methodologies and disregard the importance of teaching basic skills such as reading and writing. Instead, we should integrate up to date tools to provide the students with what they need to become active citizens. Considering this, there is no reason why learning should be boring since the possibilities to discover and bring innovative ideas to the classroom in this highly technological era are endless.
I agree with what you say. Many times, we see authors trying to make us believe that all should be technological. However, sometimes they do not take into account that in some contexts that is of the least importance, since we do not count with the facilities needed to use them.
ResponderEliminarAlso, when we plan our lessons we should have clear why we are including some techonological tools and what for. The decission for using them has to be justified; it is not using them just because we want to. There should be an educational purpose for including techonological tools; they should be facilitators and not trouble-makers.
That was exactly our point. As teachers, we can take great advantage of technology, and we should, but only if we are sensible and coherent with the environment in which we are teaching. When this is not the case technology will very likely become an intruder.
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