Originally, the role of the teacher was restricted by the transmission of content, and students were passive receivers of that content. Nowadays, the role of the teacher has changed. Now the teacher has to assume different roles. For example, facilitator, second mother, organizer, motivator, councellor, mediator, and so on.
Moreover, with the development of new technologies, teachers must adapt to a new kind of student: the Digital Native. According to Prensky (2001) nowaday's students are digital natives since they were born sorrounded by technology. On the contrary, Digital Inmigrats are people who are not acquainted with this digital environment. Digital natives speak a compleatly different language and they have other ways to interact with the world.
It can be said that Digital Natives and Immigrants have different ways to process information. While Digital Immigrants learn in a linear and logical way, Natives consider everything as a whole and at the same time. They can study and learn things even with the TV on.
We agree with Prensky when he says that “It’s just dumb (and lazy) of educators-not to mention ineffective- to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Inmigrant way is the only way to teach, and that the Digital Natives’ language is not as capable as their own of encompassing any and every idea” (Prensky, 2001). It is known that there are several ways of teaching a particular content adapting it to the students. Teachers should find effective methods to employ in every school subject and have students as model to follow.
Teachers tend to assume that students are contaminated by the new technologies and social networks. This is not true because learners and educators can benefit from these issues. We think that Digital Inmigrants should try not to believe that their way of teaching is the only one. They should be willing to incorporate new technology in the classroom every time they can. In this way students would feel that teachers take their learning styles into consideration. including songs, videos, websites, etc. in our teaching, the acquisition of new content could be produced effectively and successfully.
It can be said that Digital Natives and Immigrants have different ways to process information. While Digital Immigrants learn in a linear and logical way, Natives consider everything as a whole and at the same time. They can study and learn things even with the TV on.
We agree with Prensky when he says that “It’s just dumb (and lazy) of educators-not to mention ineffective- to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Inmigrant way is the only way to teach, and that the Digital Natives’ language is not as capable as their own of encompassing any and every idea” (Prensky, 2001). It is known that there are several ways of teaching a particular content adapting it to the students. Teachers should find effective methods to employ in every school subject and have students as model to follow.
Teachers tend to assume that students are contaminated by the new technologies and social networks. This is not true because learners and educators can benefit from these issues. We think that Digital Inmigrants should try not to believe that their way of teaching is the only one. They should be willing to incorporate new technology in the classroom every time they can. In this way students would feel that teachers take their learning styles into consideration. including songs, videos, websites, etc. in our teaching, the acquisition of new content could be produced effectively and successfully.
References:
Prensky,M. “Digital Natives, Digital Inmigrants” (2001) pp. 1 and 6
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