Teachers and students in this new technological era

“Should the Digital Native students learn the old ways, or should their Digital Immigrant educators learn the new?” 

          In the last decades, technology has brought about several changes, which not only had a meaningful impact on everyday life but also had a significant influence on education. Nowadays,  technology plays a very important role in students' lives and, as a consequence, teachers need to find new methods to involve their students actively in learning situations.

     Marc Prensky distinguishes two kinds of students: Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Making reference to the former, he considers that these students are surrounded by technology from the moment they are born. The latter, people who were born before the advent of digital technology and they need to adjust themselves to this challenge.  We may consider ourselves to be in the middle of these two generations; even though we are acquainted with this “technological world”, there are far many things we don’t know or simply we have never heard about them before. As a result, there are lots of problems we face in order to keep in touch with new technologies. However, digital natives are a great help to cope with the problems that may arise using new technological devices.

    In this technological revolution, teachers need to find ways to approach their teaching. As Prensky mentions, games are a great way to get students attracted and motivated since they are in contact with learning material even without realizing they are. This is a useful and helpful tool to introduce language and learning in an indirect way.  The educational world would do well to consider how this could be exploited in order to enhance teaching and learning experiences of learners from the ‘Playstation Age’.

We, as teachers-to-be, need to bear in mind this new coming generation, we need to understand that they are here to stay so it is our responsibility to help and guide them in order to ensure a good learning experience.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol 9. N. 5)

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