Week #3

In his article, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants," Marc Prensky notes that one singularity sets this generation apart from all others: technology. Because of the influence of technology in these students' formative years, Prensky realizes that students today think and learn in a way that is fundamentally different from any past generation; thus, past teaching methods are no longer viable. Prensky's solution is for teachers to make the subjects and concepts into video games. Certainly using video games to make learning fun and interactive would help students engage with the material. However, I wonder whether using video games will reinforce the concepts of instant gratification and students' "need" to be constantly networked. This, I feel, will not prepare them for the real world, where some of the best things come with time and where hard, difficult work pays off. Although transforming learning into a curricula of video games sounds fun, I wonder if it will only feed students' addiction to video games and encourage the trend of highschool (and even college) graduates who still live at home and spend inordinate amounts of time behind a screen in a fantasy world.