Digital Culture

I am hands down a digital immigrant. My friends often tell me that I am stuck in the 90’s because I stopped understanding and using most technology after 1999. My cell phone is the simplest basic phone on the market. When I pull it out of my pocket people literally laugh at it. The only reason I have an iPod is because it was given to me as a gift. I didn’t start using it until 2 years after I received it. I love super Nintendo and N64 but I am overwhelmed with any other game console. Prensky explains different examples that express digital immigrant accents. For example, “bringing people physic ally into your office to see an interesting website (rather than sending them the URL). This is a perfect example of my accent because I have never thought to send a URL to my roommates. I always make them come into my room to see the website. I am a digital immigrant that as a teacher must adjust to my new digital culture.

I have not had much experience with technology in the classroom as a learner. For this reason of little exposure to technology in my learning I understand why I may think or act differently about new technology than another student who was exposed. Prensky says, “We now know that brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop differently, and that people who undergo different inputs from the culture that surrounds them think differently. And while we haven’t yet directly observed Digital Natives’ brains to see whether they are physically different (such as musicians’ appear to be) the indirect evidence for this is extremely strong.” I would agree with Prensky that digital native and digital immigrants’ brains have developed differently and therefore must be taught differently. The only difference of my High School and College technology was the fact that in college I could e-mail my professors assignments. In High School everything had to be printed out. It helped me a lot, being able to email assignments or projects. I plan on incorporating technology in my classroom as a teacher.

Even though technology is foreign or a little frightening to me, I understand the importance of it in today’s society. It is a vital part of everyday. If I did not incorporate it into my classroom, I would be hindering my students from practical life applications. Students must be engaged in the classroom for solid learning to be accomplished. Technology is one great way to engage them. Prensky writes “we have to find how to present our curricula in ways that engage our students— not just to create new “lesson plans,” not even just to put the curriculum online.” If I do not engage the students in a creative way they will be enraged. I am willing to learn new technology in order to engage my students in active learning.

Cultures intrigue me. I need to think about new technology and the generation of digital natives as a digital culture. I look at technology as an exciting culture rather than a negative impersonal design then I can more powerfully use it in my life and classroom. I know that I can healthily balance the use of technology in my classroom without cutting away face to face time with students. Maybe it is time I update my personal technology equipment.