Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky

            After reading article by Marc Prensky I feel that he makes sense when he says that today’s students have changed incrementally. Though, education techniques mostly stay the same. Teachers still lecture students without even slight consideration that some people are not audible learners. Year after year researchers find more information how humans learn and absorb information. As of now, people are aware of differentiated learning techniques but only few use them in classrooms. Same thing happens with technology.

I remember in 2000s when I got my first computer it was huge, slow, and interface was much different from what we have now. For that time it was one of the fastest computers but compared to what we have now I had a dinosaur. We can look at the progress of the portable music players. Its progress has more noticeable difference. For example, at first we had cassette players, then CD players, then very big MP3 players. Now we have an IPod which is so small but has bigger capacity. Like evolution in the nature, we have evolution in everything.

If we move forward in progress, why can’t we move forward in education? I think we would have better results if we tried to understand children’s abilities better. We got used to doing tasks step by step, follow a lecture in the classroom and figure out how to learn the material better. With technology understanding of order changed a bit. We have random access to so many things. Children grow up in this environment. They get used to getting results quickly, having fun with video games, talking with anyone in the world without travelling. They don’t understand the old concepts and we cannot push them to go backwards.  Teachers have to make an effort in order to provide more opportunities for children. Teachers are the ones who help to succeed in life. Bad experiences in school make child to drop out because of the confusion and discouragement.  It is possible to make learning fun, to help kids understand how world works, to prepare them for real life.

I know from my own experience with children that negative comments ruin self-esteem. I tutor a 6-year-old child who thinks he’s a failure because he’s teacher says he’s bad in reading and spelling. He doesn’t know how to read and he was never taught to do it. How can a teacher expect results without providing necessary guidance? I feel sad when I meet kids who think they cannot learn. I try to do anything possible to help them to discover passion for learning and boost their self-esteem. If I can find ways to interpret any subjects into cartoons, slides, pictures, or fun stories, any teacher can and should do it.