Do They Really Think Differently By Marc Prensky

In the article Prensky is discussing the way that children today are socializing in a different ways from their parents. He talks about how children are exposed to thousands of hours of videogames, internet, television and commercials and very little time is spent reading books. These are todays Digital Natives, and anyone who was not raised the same way thinks differently. Prensky discusses why there are alot of educational problems in the schools today. The Digital Native children think differently from there teachers. He discusses how neurologically there is a difference in the way Digital Native's brains function. "Social Psychology also provides strong evidence that one's thinking patterns change depending on one's experiences." I agree with this statement I feel that the different things that people have experienced in their life effects the way that they think. It is like if you are younger and you get burned by fire you learn that the flame is hot and never to touch it again. As I was growing up I only felt that a hand full of my teachers understood the way that I would process things. " The environment and culture in which people are raised affects and even determines many of their thought processes." I agree with this statement also because I am Nigerian, but I was born in America. I recently took a trip back to Nigeria and met a couple of my cousins who were born in Nigeria. We sat down one day and discussed general issues about the world, and the way we view life in general is totally different. I thought about the situation and if I was raised in the same environment as them then I probably would think of life in a whole different way. Prensky also discusses how teachers say that children have short attention spans. He thinks that children have short attention spans for old ways of learning. "Digital Natives accustomed to the twitch-speed, multitasking, random- access, graphics-first active, connected, fun, fantasy, quick-payoff world of their video games, MTV and internet are bored by most of todays education, well meaning as it may be. But worse, the many skills that new technologies have actually enhanced which have profound implications for their learning are almost totally ignored by educators." I think this would be a good way to explain why alot of kids are dropping out of school or are two to three grades lower than they should be. Prensky thinks that teacher should make learning fun and teachers should adapt to what children are use to. I think that this article is very true because alot of people do not understand the way that the Digital Natives think and think they just want to be different and rebelious.