Digital Natives: Thoughts on teaching today and creating content for digital natives

In this week's reading, Prensky, M. (2001), raised so many exciting points for me, many that I have thought about myself during my seven years working in education. Whilst teaching, I noticed that many of the veteran teachers had problems relating to and connecting with the current generation, as they were asking for the attention of Digital Natives, who are used to stimulation and information streaming in from televisions and computers at a very fast rate. Supporting educational materials have not been extensively developed yet to help teachers adapt and keep up with the mindset of this generation, making it a challenge for veteran and even newer teachers to keep up. During my last few years teaching music, I made a conscious effort to try to combine technology into the classroom, whether it was Google Classroom and presentations, supporting YouTube clips, or interactive games like Kahoot. I saw and continue to see a need to approach classroom learning from a different perspective. After all, as Prensky, M. (2001) expresses, there is no going backwards (p. 3). Technology will continue to develop, and the brain structure of modern-day learners will not be the same as those from older generations. It now up to educators and those in instruction to find technology and game-based learning solutions.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

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