Marc Prensky - Controversies

Controversies

Some writers have dismissed Prensky's views as simplistic, arguing that his terminology is open to challenge and that his claim that educators should simply alter their approach to suit young people who are 'digital natives' ignores essential elements of the nature of learning and good pedagogy. These writers argue that the teacher's role is not only to do what learners want, but also to monitor, correct and - most importantly - to challenge them as well, in which light Prensky's views on pedagogy are arguably too one-dimensional (see e.g. Bax 2011).

Others have challenged whether the designation of the 'digital native' has any real-world usefulness. Prensky currently believes that it is time to move past the decade old metaphor of “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” and to strive for a new goal: Digital Wisdom. (See Prensky’s latest books: 'From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom', and 'Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom.')

Regarding what is “simplistic” and “good pedagogy” Prensky argues that the fields of education and pedagogy have today become needlessly and painfully over-complicated, ignoring our students’ (and our world’s) real needs, and that it is time to reassess what good and effective teaching means in a digital age and how to combine what is important from the past with the tools of the future. Prensky argues that despite recent influxes of technology into schools, not enough attention is being paid to the full implications of all the important recent changes in our educational environment and context. See, e.g. http://www.marcprensky.com/blog/archives/2011_06.html, Teaching the Right Stuff–Not Yesterday’s Stuff or Today’s, but Tomorrow’s (In Educational Technology, MayJune 2012) and Before Bringing in New Tools, You Must First Bring in New Thinking (Coming in Amplify, June 2012)