E-Learning Part A

Digital natives are very common in our society. They are borned and bred in the digital age and are able to use technology without much difficulties. It would not be exaggerated to say that they can't survive without computers, mp3 and cell phones. In Prensky's article, he stresses that the digital natives have different cognitive strucures. They think differently from the adults and their cognitive structures are parallel and not sequential. The digital natives are good in reading visual images, have good spatial skills, have inductive discovery and can give attention to many things at one go. They also response faster to expected and unexpected stimuli. However, the digital natives may not be able to have the time and space to self reflect and they just choose to be interested in the things they like.

I have selected the portrait of Dylan. http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-dylan-video. He uses technology to improve his community and the world through collboration with youths of other countries to develop a ThinkQuest website and Green Your Lives Initiative. He also uses technology to learn his alphabets when he was young. He had this to say "Without technology, I might not know my alphabets". Therefore, technology is integrated and central to his life. In terms of digital background, it is very similar to Singapore student. More and more Singapore students know how to use technological skills effortlessly. Many Singapore students are able to create websites for academic and leisure purposes and animated videos. For example, some Singapore students had also form collaboration groups with their classmates to develop ThinkQuest website to explore subject matters like history.

Teachers in Singapore today need to be able to integrate technology in the curriculum to teach the digital natives. It is essential to integrate ICT as they are exposed to technology since young. It serves to engage them and make them more interested in learning the subject matter and content. Asking them to just sit in their desk and listen to the teacher lecture is unable to gain their interest in learning. Teachers can exploit technology to engage them in authentic tasks and making them an active learner rather than a passive learner.