Prensky's Ideas

Prensky (2001) suggests that learners can be categorised as digital natives or digital immigrants. Natives are born into and grow up enveloped by digital technology and therefore develop a specific language and syntax around the technology, whereas immigrants are forced to adapt to a digital world. Immigrants, Prensky claims, have a digital accent and have trouble engaging with the technology, certainly to the extent that natives do. Prensky also discusses the accent and how this is a syntactic clue for younger learners. 

My thoughts are that technology is such a integral part of children and young adults lives(Digital natives) today that its become a second nature. The older generation( Digital Immigrants) have troubles adapting to these new technologies as its not something they grew up with. The digital immigrants brains were not mapped to deal with so many new technologies. There has been alot of research on the developing brain, it suggests that when the brain is still developing and they are exposed to new things (eg. technology) their brains make new connections. After a certain amount of time these new connections get less and less. I think this is why it is harder for the older generations to adapt to technology of the 21st century.

With all this new technology the question asked was do students "demand" technology in the classroom?my answer is that I don't think they do. I think that its the parents of the children that are insisting we use all this new age digital technologies in the classroom. 

And do I believe that there is any substance to the "engage or enrage" argument. Well yes and no. I believe that we need to engage students in the classroom but there is only so much we as teachers can do, its also up to the students to want to learn and what their learning environment is like at home.

My reflection on connectivism: With the internet being readily available in most households and at public libraries and schools, students can have access at any time anywhere. The focus in schools now isn't on the importance of what you know, its moving towards the importance of technology such as the internet in finding out what you need to know. 

References:
(http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115325)