Marc Prensky is a very intelligent man and has many ideas about technology and how it should be used in schools. His published books, essays, and workshops have inspired many people. However, to some his ideas are very controversial. Two of his articles, one in 2010 and one in 2011 really stuck out to me. My goal in life is to have my career be a teacher and I plan to teach k-3. Therefore, what he learned in a classroom when he went to New York struck my attention.Also, I am still in college and reading an article about how to save money on books and what the future of ebooks could be interested me. The first article I read was called, “In the 21st-Century University, Let’s Ban (Paper) Books” which was written November 13, 2011. This was only about a year ago and what he was saying I can see actually starting to happen in Universities. Money is always going to be a factor in life. Most people in this world want to save money and preserve resources instead of wasting them. For example, many trees are used to make textbooks that are only used for up to one or two years before another edition comes out. However, there could be another reason for multiple editions. One I could think of is that we are constantly evolving and having multiple editions give authors the chance to revise and change what has either gone out of date or is not true anymore. According to Marc Prensky, he learned from Amazon that there have been more e-readers being used and they also are selling for lower costs. At NDSU I know there is an option for e-readers, however you only license the book for a certain number of days not getting to keep it or see updates. However, even this is better than at some universities.
Prensky wonders like many others when universities are going to become completely book-less. I know not having to carry numerous books to and from class would do wonders for my back. Only worrying about a laptop or computer would make things easier. I think it would also be less expensive to have books online in the long term.
Also,I like the idea that if the books are online that they can be linked to other notes on the subject that are out there. Not just the teachers notes and comments, but authors, other students and many others. The internet is full of educational tools different websites can be connected as well. For example, Marc mentions Youtube which is a very effective tool. For the most part I agree with all the things he has mentioned and thought of to better our community. Saving money, resources, and making education easier and more educational are all positives to me.
There are some drawbacks to going paperless. When becoming a teacher we learn that not every child learns the same way. Some may be able to learn, read, focus or much more with an actual book to look at, highlight, and study from. This is one disagreement with what Marc was saying. I do not believe that all paper books should be confiscated, forcing a student to learn from a computer.
The second article I read called “What I Learned Recently In New York City Classrooms” is all about class sizes and making sure that the students are staying engaged and being educated to the best of their ability. Prensky added a quote “Class size matters only if the teacher does everything”. This got me thinking about my previous elementary classes. All of my classes were about 20 students. Smaller class sizes are supposed to be better because you are able to get more hands on activity time and you are able to learn with more ease compared to bigger classroom sizes where you may not even be able to connect with your teacher.
The reason why Marc Prensky decided to sit in on a classroom is because his readers were questioning his opinions due to not teaching students day to day. He realized that classrooms are still overcrowded and many schools are still very old and not much has changed since he has been there, 40 years ago. A grant called Title 2D allowed Prensky to help the teachers in Manhattan to add technology to their curriculum and see how it can benefit learning in the classroom. However, many problems came out of this along with some positives.
Along with the first article, money had a lot of influence with being able to carry out his idea and plan. One major problem I see with this is that it took them a grant to experiment with technology. Not all schools are going to have the time or money. Also, There are going to have to be many guinea pig classroom and schools before the benefits of Prensky’s ideas can be seen. Many classrooms are also overcrowded.
Finally, there is no point to get new technology when the schools old age prevent the new technology from working correctly. Prensky says there would be bad internet connection. This problem can kill a technology program before it starts I do believe adding technology to curriculum is a good idea but the infrastructure needs to be there too.
To read the articles I read click on the links:
What_I_Learned_in_NYC_Classrooms
In-the-21st-Century
marcprensky.com
