Do digital natives need teachers?

I spent a very interesting time at the Games and Learning pre-conference seminar at Handheld Learning 2007. It was chaired by Marc Prensky and the people speaking at it were:

• Gill Clough & Rebecca Walker from the Open University talking about their work with gifted and talented children in Second Life
• Robert Hart from Intuitive Media and his company’s recent experiences and research in using SuperClubs within and outwith schools.
• Myself talking about my work at the Consolarium

However, I want to talk about something that arose from the post presentation discussions. A healthy debate about the purpose and practically of games and learning ensued but one delegate suggested that personalised learning with games would eventually mean that no teacher would be required in the learning relationship. Another delegate suggested that what we need is a game that will deliver everything we need to teach!

What was interesting for me was that in the ensuing debate about these points Marc Prensky appeared to be of the opinion that we should let the children use the technology in an independent fashion and that learning ‘will happen’. I appreciate that this can, and does, happen but I have some real concerns about this from a theoretical and experiential perspective.

Years ago when I was a B.Ed(P) student at Northern College in Dundee we used to sit through lectures about the theory and practice of education (big respect to Jim Ewing et al.). Without going in to things in great detail I remember learning about Jean Piaget, possibly the father of the field in child learning and development. We learned about his work but also of criticisms of it from people such as Scotland’s own Margaret Donaldsont The main point that stayed with me was that Piaget claimed that if left to their own devices, children could, and would, learn when interacting without the interaction of an adult.

We also learned about social contructivism and in particular the work of a psychologist called Lev Vygotsky. Now Vygotsky talks abot the Zone of Proximal Development. This is defined as the gap between what a learner can do and what they do know, and, what they can’t do and what they don’t know. That gap is the place where the teacher comes in and uses whatever means, methodologies, resources etc to bridge that gap and take the learner forward.

I was working in a secondary school recently where we were introducing mp4 players that come installed with motivational audio files that help students develop effective strategies for study and an awareness of how the brain works and how effective learning can take place. We gave the learners mp4 players, access to a central blog that leads the learning and an individual blog where they would reflect on what they have learned about their effective study and themselves as a learner. However, although the project is at a very early stage there does not yet appear to be any reflective writing or dialogue on the blogs yet. Why? I believe it’s because we maybe assumed that because technology was in place that this reflection would just happen. Up to now it hasn’t and I’m not confident that it will unless we teach these learners about self-reflection and how they can engage with it.

Now I appreciate that learners are becoming more and more connected, that they learn very well on their own with technology and that they are, in many cases more technically proficient than their teachers. I do also believe that teachers need to be using technology in more informed and effective ways but we can’t continue to give them an inferiority complex and reminding them about what they can’t do! We must not forget the importance of the teacher in the learning relationship and we can’t abdicate our responsibility to lead, guide and hone the skills of the digital learner just because they are good with technology…and maybe more proficient with it than many teachers. We’re in this together folks are we not, so let’s support everyone.

Comments

[Kim Pericles]

Interesting post Derek - "... there does not yet appear to be any reflective writing or dialogue on the blogs yet."
This is a dilemma that I have experienced too - I tried to set questions for the kids to answer to help scaffold, but this wasn't too successful as I think the questions were a bit "closed". The kids just answered them in a sentence or two, they were just answering questions not reflecting :(

What I am beginning at the moment (its actually part of my literacy program) is looking at open ended questions, composing open ended questions and answering open-ended questions. Seems to be producing more in-depth answers - but not quite refelective yet.

Self reflecting is a skill most adult learners find difficult, so I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that our students find it hard as well.

But at least it shows that "....we can’t abdicate our responsibility to lead, guide and hone the skills of the digital learner just because they are good with technology..." . So I guess our place (somewhere) in the classroom - hopefully alongside our students - is still necessary :)

PS sorry for this "extended" comment :0

[Derek]

I'd love to hear more about your experience in developing learners ability to self-reflect on their blogs comes along....and yes, teachers are still needed! I couldn't agree more.

[sharon mcquillan]

Wish the transition from 'digital native' to 'inspired digital learner' for want of another term could 'just happen' but unfortunately this does not seem to be the case.
My own three children aged 6, 15 and 18 are all digital natives but the older two - even with me trying to 'guide them' towards using technology for learning are reluctant to 'spend time' on this. There are sooooo many other digital distractions at their fingertips which are to them at this point in their lives much more interesting and fun.
They have the technical knowledge and there appear to be no barriers as far as furthering their expertise in this area is concerned, but their usage???
It seems that still thousands of teachers are still struggling with the technology - (which makes me a bit angry if I'm 100% honest!) and kids are still struggling with desire to use technology for educational purpose and so therefore - yes we still and probably always will need each other!
We all just need to listen to each other more and teachers particularly need to be much more prepared to learn from and with their pupils and to use all forms of technology in classrooms to inspire and encourage today's young people.

Will this ever be the case ???

We need to shout louder!!

[Teach]

I saw Pensky yesterday at a conference at Western Carolina University and he was a total condescending jerk. His presentation wasn’t very good and his answers to forum questions were pat and useless. He was more of a politician than anything else. Also, he didn’t offer one new thing to an audience of over 2000 teachers taken from classrooms. He berated all of us for not using technology without acknowledging we were a rural area that had little access to technology.

As if we didn’t already know kids learn better with technology, and that kids love to work in groups, as if we aren’t already working with what we had….

Basically this guy had no idea what he was talking about. He whisked into town, got his big fat check, said lots of impractical and dumb things, and then left.

[Derek]

Hey Teach,
Sorry you had not so good an experience with Marc Prensky. I think that he makes a lot of very good points and we can't forgot that he has pushed the agenda for games based learning a great, great deal...more than anyone really. I do think that, as with all ideas I suppose, that questions need to be asked if people feel that things don't work for, or sit well with them. That's what I tried to do with my initial comments about the importance of teachers in the learning relationship. Was there nothing that you found of use or interest in his talk?

[Teach]

No, there wasn’t.

During the question and answer part of his presentation, a young lady pointed out some of the criticisms I outlined in my comments from yesterday and he dismissed her with “that’s your perspective, do you have a question.” He really didn’t care what anyone else thought.

I can also assure you that 70-80% of the 2000 people there felt just as I did, including a bus load of people from my school. He was the topic of the conversation on the 1 hour drive back through the Appalachians.

By the way, I enjoyed reading your post, and your blog is quite good.

What I am saying to you is that Pensky is kidding himself. Politicians at state and federal level aren’t going to give schools the money they need to do any of this stuff. It easier to just manipulate data and shape it to make any school look like a failure.

Thanks for the conversation.

[Derek Robertson]

Thanks Teach,
The drive through the Appalachinas sounds great by the way! Have you had a look at what we are trying to do in Scotland with Games based leanring? We're trying to make it happen in schools and there has been some interestinmg stuff up to now. One final thing, do you have a blog? I think I'd enjoy reading someone's 'forthright' opinions more often.

[andy Black]

Derek

I posted an email to a contact of mine during Marc's presentation saynig I wasnt happy with some of his argument and he came back with this article from Futurelab "The myth of the digital native" worth a read first published back in 2004 http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/web_articles/Web_Article561

[Teach]

I have two blogs. One is professional and one is personal. The professional one is purely for classroom use and would not be of use for our discussion (nor would the personal one- but I am using it in this post).

I am intrigued by the use of technology and the use of computer games in the classroom, but such things are only a tool, and can be over or underused.

In the case of this fellow, what he was essentially saying was that teachers are outdated, and kids only need the technology and one another to learn. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me put it this way.

In his sneering presentation, he showed a Youtube video of two kids clowning around with a small camera in the back of a classroom while the teacher was going over advanced math. Now, the point he was trying to make, the point he was failing at making, was that teachers are out of touch and the kids were on top of the world. Obviously, the teacher was too engaged in what he was doing to catch the mischief makers. But what Pensky didn’t realize was that he had just revealed the truth: the kids SHOULD have technology in the classroom, but they should use it appropriately, which is why we need trained teachers who are given the tools by their local governments.

Pensky, I can assure you, is doing a great deal of damage to the cause he espouses. I’m telling you, I was in the crowd and know what was being said about him.

[Teach]

and Derek I would love to know more about your ideas in Scotland.

[Leonard Low]

Wow... this has been some powerful commentary. As a completely objective onlooker, I've read a huge amount of negative press for Prensky this week, after I posted my impressions of his keynote at the Handheld Learning 2007 conference (http://mlearning.edublogs.org/2007/10/29/handheld-learning-2007-keeping-up-with-change-marc-prensky/). I limited my remarks to Prensky's message being outdated; but from what others are saying, he is not only out of date, but completely out of touch.

The various comments on Prensky discredit him both personally and professionally. I will certainly have to read more widely on the (in)validity of the Digital Native concept, as well as his merit (or otherwise) as a conference guest or speaker...