Marc Prensky’s “The Role of Technology: in teaching and the classroom”

Thanks to a recent comment that was added to my blog, I looked further into the works of Marc Prensky. A comment left on my “Talk about Techno-Influenced” post suggested I read a link that lead me to read more about the author, Marc Prensky. Prensky’s website proved to be time well-invested. In Prensky’s article (one of many interesting ones I might add), ”The Role of Technology: in teaching and the classroom,” Prensky offers a realistic use of technology in the classroom as a learning tool, rather than as a hindrance (i.e. texting in class and messeage managers, etc.) to learning. An example of how to use technology in the classroom that Prensky suggests is as follows:

Instead of coming in with lesson plans that begin “Here are the three causes of [whatever], please take notes,” they need to say “There are three main causes of [whatever it is]. You have 15 minutes to use your technology to find them, and then we’ll discuss what you’ve found.

This example that Prensky gave within his article makes me hunger for more ideas on how to integrate technology into the classroom, ideas that are more student-centred/ social-centred rather than teacher-centred. In the past, I thought I was being “techno-savvy” by transferring my notes and lectures into powerpoint, when actually, the students would probably benefit more from finding the info themselves. Does anyone else have any other ideas out there on this topic?

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