Articles by Prensky, Lohnes & Kinzer

Prensky (2001 & 2005) clearly asserts that current education systems have become outdated. He calls for urgent reforms to teaching methodology in order to meet the educational requirements for new generations, which he refers to as ‘digital natives’. Digital natives according to Prensky, are simply those who are born into a world predominantly mediated by digital technology; they are “fluent in the language of computers, video games, and the internet”. (Prensky, 2005: 1). Oblinger and Oblinger’s description of Net Gen students as cited in Lohnes & Kinzer is very similar to Prensky’s description of digital natives.

Prenksy appears to advocate the assumption that students have changed radically, and that they cannot be taught by traditional teaching methods. Hence, it appears that he assumes that students will inevitably demand a more digitally mediated education. This assumption may appear to have been proven wrong in Lohnes’ & Kinzer’s article. However, Lohnes & Kinzer indicate that there is still much research to be done to fully understand the implications and that their results may be biased by contextual or other factors.

Overall, Lohnes’ & Kinzer’s article does not contradict the views of Prensky. Although it depicts that technology is culturally embedded in Net Gen students’ lives, it merely shows that there is no current demand from students to incorporate digital media into their classrooms.

I agree with Caruso and Kvavik’s argument that, “these young people can make technology work but cannot place these technologies in the service of academic works”. (cited in Lohnes & Kinzer, ). I strongly agree with Prensky that teaching methodologies should be reformed to meet the requirements of new generations. If new generations are now thinking differently as Prensky suggests, it is common sense that we reform teaching methods to address this. Younger people do tend to multitask quite naturally, and with less effort than someone who has merely learnt the skills of multitasking.

Due to the nature of my current studies, I expect to use as much new media tools as possible. I am involved with digital media in general and would feel inadequate if I were taught these practices in a traditional manner, that is, in a classroom-lecturer-student setting.