Comments on: Engage Me or Enrage Me: Educating Today’s “Digital Native” Learners

By: Miguel Guhlin

Miguel Guhlin — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 14:59:29 +0000

Wes, did Marc ever allow you to share the audio?

By: Teaching Generation Z » Prensky, Prensky and More Prensky

Teaching Generation Z » Prensky, Prensky and More Prensky — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:47:53 +0000

[...] Off to see Marc Prensky on Friday here in Adelaide. I’ve been keen to hear him speak since becoming aware of his work via David Warlick, who blogged about him as an A list speaker. I’m going to the event (at the Ramada Grand no less) with a fellow middle school teacher who asked for a few links to get “up to speed” on Prensky’s work. I’ve found his “digital natives / digital immigrant” analogy really useful as it has been the methaphor that has really clicked with some of colleagues wondering what all the edech fuss is about. So the links I assembled quickly are worth reproducing here as they cover a fair bit of his message. Marc Prensky’s Official Website (includes his blog!) Alan Levine blogs Marc Prensky keynote Edutopia article – Adopt and Adapt Educational Leadership magazine – Listen to the Natives David Warlick blogs Marc Prensky @ BlueRidge Bernie Dodge’s opinion Wesley Fryer blogs Marc Prensky@TCEA 2006 [...]

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 04:55:49 +0000

We all need to be working toward that end. In my workshop today with teachers in Miami, Texas, I encouraged them to view their goal in the classroom as primarily trying to help ENGAGE students in the learning process, rather than transmitting the curriculum to them as teachers have traditionally. This is a hard sell. Ultimately I think our state, national, and organizational standards are going to need to change if this focus is to become widespread. Our present accountability systems seem to discourage the type of project-based, in-depth learning that our students love and desperately need to be authentically engaged in schools. If schools don’t change, many students will (and are) seeking alternatives in home schooling and private schooling. But those are not options for all students. So public schools must change. The current educational status quo is not acceptable in terms of results/outcomes or predominant practices.

By: C. A. Morrow

C. A. Morrow — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:42:52 +0000

As an educator I felt the information went hand in hand with a book I just finish called The World Is Flat. The book talked about the changes in technology and how it affects the World. Mr. Prensky sessions seemed to be more focused on the effects of technology on the children and how education is affected. Both are talking about what we, The United States, need to do to remain major contenders in the world.

As a mother of a child that people say has ADHD, I found relief in hearing Mr. Prensky says “Today’s students are not ADE, they are EOE: Engage me or Enrage me.” My first thought was that I wish his teachers were here! I wish their class size were smaller so that my GT son was being engaged rather then bored and turned off by education. I have felt there is something wrong with education for a long time. I have seen my child focus on items with such intensity that he has totally tunes out the rest of the world. While at school he is very active and into everything the teachers do not want to do.

My next thought was “I wonder how I can get the teachers at my campus to buy into it.” How can I help make education a great learning experience for our faculty and students? That I am still working on.

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 05:16:57 +0000

I agree, Conn. I concur with much of what Marc says, but I do think we should keep things in perspective and realize that we’ve needed major educational reforms for years– long before the digital natives showed up, we have had people like John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and many others writing about how a transmission-based curriculum is not good for authentic learning. We don’t really need technology to make this shift, but I think in some ways the changes wrought by technology make the need for change even more pressing. Glad your chemistry teacher wanted to prepare you for the real world, which is “open book!” I wonder how much that simple format change would do to transforming our educational system: if all assessments were open note / open book?!

By: Conn McQuinn

Conn McQuinn — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:40:27 +0000

Whew! Your fingers must be blistered!

What is alternately intriguing and frustrating is how much of this isn’t new. One of my educational ephiphanies (long before I knew I was going to be an educator myself) took place in my second chemistry class in college. On the first day of the quarter, the professor gave an overview of the course and his expectations. When he came to describing the tests, he said (in his marvelous Swiss accent) “Oh, and by the vay, my tests are all open book tests. That’s because someday ven you grow up and become a real chemist, your boss von’t walk into your office, giff you an assignment, and then grab all your books off your desk and walk out of the room.” It blew me away because it was so obvious and so radical at the same time. How much more so now in the world of Google on cell phones, much less thirty years from now!