My Life as a Digital Native

Considering the fact that Marc Prensky's article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" was written about young people when I was only thirteen years old, it is not surprising that I closely identify with his idea of the modern young person: the digital native. I do not remember a time when my family did not have a personal computer that I could use. I found myself laughing out loud at some of his descriptions of the tendencies of the digital immigrant; the idea of digital immigrants "printing out . . . email " had me in stitches! I could probably count on my hand the number of times I have ever needed to print an e-mail in my entire life. I also recognize that where digital immigrants may be "turning to the Internet for information second rather than first," I almost always look things up online before turning to a print source. For me, it is just faster. I was recently remarking to my mother about how much I use the Internet as a resource for information; there are many kinds of information that I would not know where to find without the Internet. 


The major point on which my personal experience differs from Prensky's description would have to be that "today's average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games." As someone who spent much of my childhood reading, and who received my Bachelor of Arts in English, I have definitely spent a lot more time reading than playing video games. I enjoy playing video games quite a bit, but reading has held a more important place in my life.


My high school had very limited access to advanced technology. I do not remember ever using anything more advanced than an InFocus projector to watch movies in Wellness. Most of the computers in the classrooms were more than five years old. Once I got to college, almost all of my classrooms had modern computers and InFocus projectors available, and a few even had document cameras and SMART boards. The increased availability of technology in my college classrooms made it easier for my teachers to access information and resources that engage students. I think the ability to use film clips from the Internet has been the most helpful for me, because videos convey information visually and aurally, which is meets my learning needs well..


I do not feel that the articles that we read for this assignment specifically changed my mind about how I would use technology in the classroom. If technology is available to me in my classroom, I will make use of it as much as possible to engage my students. I plan on using film clips and other mediums to engage them in their different learning styles and to address their unique needs as digital natives.