I was exposed to the internet and the use of the computers
back in 1992. Before that I never been experience it myself. So I grew with the
paper and pen, and my social life was through using the home phone and postal mails.
When I started to teach as a teacher (k-8) in 1998 there was
a big use for educational softwares like “Reading Rabbits”. I worked at an
urban school. The use of technology like (I Station, X box 360, Play Station…ets)
started to grow, later the Cell phones and IPods.
From my readings; Prensky assumed “based on his research” that
children today (Millennials) are natives with the digital technology because
they grew with it. A lot of the ideas and information he says relates back to my
students lives and education now; but Prenskey have used web surveys that all circulate
on social media sites in a rich place in Virginia.
I think we should not generate that digital age rules apply on
all today’s children; for example there are children these days who are growing
in a low income areas that never got the opportunity to use a cell phone or use
a computer in their school.
Prensky assumes that digital children are better than adults
in technology. We answer for this that they might be better than adults in
using the IPhone, IPod, or tablet; but they are not any better in using complex
things like educational platforms, google, Microsoft, spreadsheet, power point,
blogs and so…
I am from the Generation X (1965-198), which many of them
are connected to technology and can do complex things with technology in
addition to their critical thinking skills.
There are some similarities and differences between the Millennials
(1981-2000) and the Generation Edge (2000-2020), but we cannot tell before the Edge
group are young adults in 2020.
The bottom line, we cannot draw our conclusions based on
social media researches because it will cover one class or layer of people.
