Immigrants Unite!

After reading the Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants 2 part article by Marc Prensky, I felt almost guilty for letting down the needs of my digitally-minded students. I feel like I need to step it up in the classroom and incorporate more technology and I intend to do just that, but I told a colleague about the article and what she said has made me think that generalizing is dangerous business in the classroom.

My colleague and friend mentioned that her daughter prefers the "lecture and give me what I need to know" approach to teaching. She doesn't like bells and whistles, just the facts. I completely understand, and appreciate, that auditory learners prefer being told rather than sifting through information and reading to find what they need. So what about podcasts or other auditory forms of technology?

After talking about that, my colleague and I recalled how much our students hated using video tutorials for Photoshop. This made me think that there's only one thing we can do-go directly to the source. Students are the only people who can tell us how they learn best and what kinds of technology they want to use. Prensky also suggests this approach. Ask the natives what they want and give them choices.
Immigrants, let us unite and work with the natives rather than trying to guess what they need or like!