Changing Paradigms by Marc Prensky

I found the article Chaning Paradigms by Marc Prenksy very interesting and thought that it highlighted some important points. My thoughts are below:

In this article Prensky discusses the idea that education today, in today’s technologies, is utterly removed from that of the past. Students of all ages do not want to be lectured to, they want to be able to find information out for themselves and use it in a way that is appropriate to them.

I think that in order to be able to teach in the twenty-first century we don’t need to focus on which technologies we are using, but rather how we and the students can use them. I feel that there is so much concern about giving didactic lessons on how to use certain computer programs when what we should be doing is focusing on the task rather than the equipment. We need to treat computers and other ICT equipment as we treat pens and paper; it’s there, we all use it and it’s going to remain in our society for a long time.

Engaging the children and motivating them to want to learn is the most important aspect of teaching and if we continue to read out our PowerPoint presentations then we are doing neither of these things and the children will become bored.

I agree with Prensky in that we need to devise challenges for the children which give them the opportunity to investigate, share and discuss with their peers. I feel that education is no longer about simply telling the children something to remember in order that they pass the exams, children need to learn to investigate and solve problems for themselves and they need to use ICT to do that because, let’s face it, it’s what they do best.


I don’t agree with Prensky when he comments that the demise of the classroom isn’t far away, I think that classrooms won’t be used as we use them now, but that they will become more of a meeting place for groups of children embarking on investigative work, and undoubtedly they will eventually be filled with numerous examples of ICT equipment.