Digital Natives

By Marc Pensky's definitions of Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives in his article "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives," I am a Digital Immigrant, though I don't feel much like one. I remember when I was very young and my family bought its first computer. I remember the introduction of instant messaging. I remember when my parents bought their first pair of cell phones that held only 10 contacts each. Even though I remember what seems like the beginning of this generation of technology, I don't feel very connected to Pensky's description of Digital Immigrants. That being said, I find myself somewhere between Digital Immigrant and Digital Native. Rather than having my "foot in the past," as Pensky puts it, I feel like I have my pinky toe in the past, and that's simply because I remember what it was like before many of today's technologies were fully developed.

Having read "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives," I agree with Pensky. The way students learn today is much different from the way previous generations learned, simply due in fact to the vast presence of advanced technologies available to all. Keeping this in mind, we as educators need to adapt our teaching strategies to meet the needs of today's students, which inevitably means incorporating various technologies.

While I think games are a great way for students to learn and practice what they have learned as mentioned in both "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently?" by Pensky, I wonder how much experience and time is needed to create such resources. While I would love to provide educational games to play for my students, I don't have the slightest clue where I would begin to create games like this. My first thought is to locate games that already exist, but that can be difficult at times to find a game that matches exactly what you're studying in class. That being said, I very much agree with Pensky that we need to find more technology-infused ways to reach our students.