This event was held 11 - 15th November 2002 and led by our special guest Marc Prensky.
The discussion in this event centred on the challenges facing DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS - baby boomers now in their 40s and 50s who were born before the Internet was invented.
What happens when their learners are BORN DIGITAL and are used to twitchspeed - the fast and furious pace of computer games? What are the implications for educators? Can boomers GO DIGITAL or will they always be on the fringes of this brave new world?
Here’s a summary of what was concluded during the discussion:
Understanding the difference between digital immigrants and digital natives means understanding why natives often find immigrant-style teaching so boring.
Digital Immigrants have what all immigrants have: an accent! Some examples of the Digital Immigrant accent include:
- printing out your emails
- getting your secretary print your emails out for you
- going to the Internet for information second rather than first
- thumbing through a cumbersome edition of Yellow Pages instead of going to the appropriate website and finding it within seconds.
- drafting forum postings with pen & paper kept beside the computer
- double clicking on everything
Using games may be the most effective way to engage digital natives in learning. The generation raised on Sesame St associates learning and fun (the previous generation didn't). Learning doesn’t have to feel like work. Get some “reverse mentoring” from the Natives. Ask them how to get more gameplay into the learning.
There is nothing wrong with making everything a game. For example, instead of teaching “Basic Computer Skills” use Solitaire (it was originally included with operating systems to teach mouse skills) or “treasure hunts” (don't tell the learner anything, make them play, discover and tell you).
One way to make mainstream teachers more receptive to “fun” is to surreptitiously include games in new teacher training and existing teacher staff development activities.
The “look” of a game is not so important to natives. What motivates them is the quality of the gameplay – the frequency and pace of decisions, their importance, short, medium and long-range goals, the struggle to reach the goals, etc.
Game playing teaches more than just how to click to get to the next level. Game players learn HOW to do things (the tasks in the game, which are often simulations of real life tasks) WHAT to do (the rules) WHY do it (the strategy) WHERE they are (about the game's environment) and WHEN and WHETHER to do things. They also retain much more than if they were merely told.
Quote: “Think about the way kids learn computers. Multiple sources, no classes, no assessment, yet they beat our asses off!” Twitchspeeders have the confidence to read and absorb information from multiple sources. They take in the relevant points - not the whole content - and put the information together in a unique way. Can we change assessment practices, especially competency based training, to encourage this lateral thinking?
Skills such as leadership and communication are long term skills learned over a lifetime, yet we teach them like riding a bicycle. Games have the potential to be a much more effective way to teach these.
Many young people love multiplayer online games (such as Ragnarok, Dungeons and Dragons etc). It would be great to combine the concrete task/skill learning process with collaborative skill development by using this sort of game. This is already happening to some extent. In the future we will have “open systems” like these multiplayer games that every student and every teacher in the world can contribute to. These will be a lot like the multiplayer games The Sims and EverQuest.
Games companies spend a lot more on developing their games than educational organisations ever could. This could pose a problem.
Assessment can be done the same way it always has – by asking questions and watching people do things. If questions and assessments are built into the game, you don't need a separate assessment. Or assessment could be optional: a review of the game plus 100 logged hours in the content.
“Quests” and “StoryTelling” are forms of gameplay that work well for immigrants, but may not be the kind of gameplay that engages natives. Natives could need more immediate feedback and less emphasis on reflective thinking. Maybe inserting more “twitchspeed” elements such as texting and instant messaging would help? As Natives are better at multitasking you could immerse them in a role playing, problem based learning scenario with many layers and levels of complexity - with rewards built in.
The hardest thing to digitise is a teacher's empathy with a learner. This is the main thing we should now be looking for in teachers, not knowledge of content or methodology – these are easily put online.
Questions to Marc:
- Is “immigrants vs natives” really a generational issue or is it more about attitude? Maybe it reflects who is willing to embrace new ways of doing things and who is not?
- Are the problems that Digital Natives have with the traditional classroom really just the same problems that young people have always had (regardless of generation)?
Answer
No. There has been a big discontinuity. It is not a “mindset” but a “changed brain” that differentiates younger generations from the older ones. It’s like learning another language. No matter how well you learn it, you will never speak it without an accent. When digital immigrants accept this they will be free to make the most of these differences - for everyone involved.
Contributors:
Pam Atkins, Marty Cielens, Sally Drummond, Rose Grozdanic, Louise Housden, Marie Jasinski, Sue Klajman, Carole McCulloch, Marc Prensky, Alison Tankard, Elke Watson, Robby Weatherley
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed writer, consultant, futurist, visionary and inventor in the critical areas of education and learning. Find out more about Marc's work at:
http://www.marcprensky.com/
http://www.games2train.com/
