Teaching Digital Natives (repost)

by Teguh Khaerudin

Teaching today's students how to use technology in language teaching and learning feels like teaching ducks how to swim; they  are better technology users than I am. Using Prensky's terminology (2001), I am a digital immigrant and my students are the digital natives. So, as an immigrant, I have a rather 'thick' accent in using technology whereas natives use it as if they breath the air; it's just natural to them.

In his famous 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants', Prensky warned that "our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." Teaching today's students using the methods we were taught by at our students period will just not work (Prensky, 2001). He, furthermore,  suggested that teachers should adapt to their 'digital natives' students in two ways: methods and contents.

Changing our methods of teaching would mean that we should know our students'  characteristics. I would say that they are a new breed of students who can do many things we didn't usually do when we were students: learn thing (or things) fast, parallel, and at random! A student reading a book while texting her friend (or friends!) and listening to an iPod is not an unusual setting. Well, I do multitasking sometimes, especially when it close to a deadline, but it doesn't always work well. Failure to tailor our teaching to these characteristics will hinder learning and demotivate students.

Teachers should also look at what contents or materials that need to be delivered to the students. Today's students are information literate who are picky regarding which materials they want to study whereas teachers are always sure that they know what their students need to study. Traditional stuff does not attract students as much as things that are digital and technological. Thus, teachers should start to look at ways to combine traditional and digital or technological materials in their teaching.

Those adaptation both in methods and contents has made teaching digital natives becomes more challenging. With all those accent that teachers have in using new technology, teachers are required to be more sensitive to their students needs, wants, and interests, and to be more creative and imaginative in planning their teaching.

References:

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1 - 6.