Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

I thought this was an excellent article. The author suggests that digital natives (students of today) “process information” much differently than students who were not born in the digital technology world. The article states that since the digital natives have had different experiences, they have different brain structures. The author believes that today’s learning should be based on digital games and technology. I agree with the author, but I feel that children’s learning can be based on digital learning and many other ways of learning. As an elementary music teacher, I plan for many activities to engage as many students as possible. I feel the more they are engaged, the more they learn. Students learn in different ways, so I try to incorporate a variety of learning styles to teach a concept: visual, aural, rhythmic, movement, and tactile. I teach at Perley Fine Arts Academy where it is believed that fine arts integration into the curriculum stimulates a student’s capacity to learn. To summarize, I believe digital learning has a place, but educators must keep an open mind for other ways and methods that may also increase a child’s capability to learn.