Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrants

I totally consider myself a digital immigrant due to the fact that I have only needed to rely on computers heavily for the last five years or so. Before that it was just for recreational searching, checking e-mail, etc. I think the real problem for me is that I have super-slow typing skills, and I prefer to write things out on paper first. It’s almost ironic that I’m so slow because my Mom teaches keyboarding. As far as video gaming goes, I have always played starting with Nintendo, but as I’ve gotten older I have experienced less and less time to spend in front of the TV and opted for actually physically participating in or watching the sports live. I guess that I might be in the minority of the quote that is stated by Prensky “Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). (Pg.1)
As a learner early on in elementary school, I remember watching movies on the projector that used reels! It seemed so cool at the time, but I now see (20 years later) how in fact lame that method would end up being. Over the years I did experience overhead projectors, and TV’s that had VCR’s for visual aids. This seemed pretty standard throughout middle and high school. As I got older and made it to college, technology had obviously improved and many new tools were available. These visuals morphed from TV’s w/VCR’s, to giant pull down white screens with digital projectors mounted from the ceiling. Overhead projectors with transparencies are now replaced with “elmo’s” that can read sheets of paper and project digitally. The introduction of PowerPoint gave a whole new meaning to lectures, and information was able to be communicated more visually. This has been a welcomed learning strategy for me, as my attention span tends to wander from time-to-time. This is stated accurately in Prensky’s Part II which says about students “Sure they have short attention spans—for the old ways of learning.”(pg. 4) This illustrates the idea that new technology and advances in teaching strategies make learning conducive for all types of thinkers.
These articles have definitely swayed my ideas of using technology in the classroom, because of the many different ways that it can grip a student and make learning possible. Prensky states “Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now.”(pg. 3) I have been a witness to this in previous classes in high school and nothing was more frustrating. I think that by incorporating web based assignments and technologically fueled projects in health classes, it will spark greater thought and development than the regular book based research. I think that videotaping certain skills (like running form or basketball shooting technique) in PE classes could make for better improvements in the given skill and give the students a fresher outlook on their own physical evolution.