Are You Reaching Your Digital Natives? - Grades: 3–5, 6–8
Several years ago, I attended a conference that changed
everything about the way I teach. It was the conference in which
I was introduced to the fact that our students are “digital
natives,” which means they learn differently than many of their
teachers. This was part of Marc Prensky's 2001 research that
found that students are more motivated to learn and excel
through the use of technology. Why is this? Because the visual
cortex of the digital native’s brain is 20 percent larger than
brains measured 25 years ago and so they are very visual. To
best reach them, you have to design visual lessons for them.
Facts From Marc Prensky and Ian Jukes - Digital natives retain
90 percent of all pictures that they see. - They tend to
disregard things written in black and white as unimportant.
(Think about your notes for students to take home that never
make it.) - When looking at a page, they scan from left corner
to right corner and then down to bottom left corne