Marc R. Prensky - From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom: Hopeful Essays for 21st Century Learning

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Copyright 2012 by Marc Prensky

All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial or nonprofit entities that have purchased the book. Except for that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author photo on page ix by Robert Leslie.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Prensky, Marc.

From digital natives to digital wisdom : hopeful essays for 21st century learning / Marc Prensky ; foreword by Milton Chen.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4522-3009-2 (pbk.)

1. Educational changeUnited States. 2. EducationAims and objectivesUnited States. 3. EducationEffect of technological innovations onUnited States. I. Title.

LA217.2.P68 2012

370.973dc23 2011048360

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

12 13 14 15 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I ts a wonderful honor to write the Foreword for Marc Prenskys new book, From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom: Hopeful Essays on 21st Century Learning. Marc is a provocative and prolific writer, marvelous speaker, and a courageous digital child advocate. He has the same passionate energy and courage of conviction as other child advocates Ive known, such as Marian Wright Edelman of the Childrens Defense Fund and Fred Rogers in public TV. He shares their same DNA and righteous indignation at the injustices that adults perpetrate on children. Marc continually tells us to take off our pretentious adult glasses, get down to the childrens level, and see these curious, playful beings as the marvelous learning machines they are. If he started an organization, it might well be called the Digital Natives Defense Fund.

This book collects Marcs own digital wisdom from essays written over the years. It ought to be packaged with every new computer and smartphone sold to educators, just like they used to put a sample of Tide detergent in new washing machines. Like that little box of soap, this book is the active ingredient that can help educators use their new devices more effectively.

When starting up our Edutopia magazine in 2005, we turned to Marc as one of the most insightful writers we knew. Several of his essays, such as Simulation Nation and The True 21st Century Literacy Is Programming, first appeared in the magazine and on the Edutopia.org website and always attracted lively commentary from readers.

Its revealing to me to reread these essays and see the scope and evolution of Marcs thinking. In practicing what he preaches, Marc has been open to new ideas and trends and to adjusting his thinking based on new information. The past decade has certainly brought a rush of new digital platforms and tools, from YouTube to Facebook and Twitter. And with the global shift of power, its abundantly clear that we need to prepare children for life and work in a world we cant predict. (I myself sometimes tire of the continuing parade of platforms and would like to create my own, simplifying their best features for digital immigrants, and call it YouTwitFace.)

Its hard to believe that Marcs essay Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants was published 10 years ago and that a new generation of Digital Natives is entering our schools. The need for the educational system and those working in it to see its learners differently has become even more urgent. The fissures in the system are widening, and the days of the conventional classroom are clearly numbered. I particularly love his metaphor that the system needs a Delete button (a big one, in fact). Like so many Prenskyisms, its an unforgettable way of encapsulating a key issue. We keep adding more programs, initiatives, and technologies, but we rarely eliminate the outdated policies and practices that prevent us from embracing the future.

Another gem is Turning On the Lights, in which he gives voice to the fundamental problem so many students have with school: sheer boredom. He describes the rapidly growing divide between the knowledge kids can attain out of school and the narrow confines of their lives within it. And in Simulation Nation, he poses part of the solution: to embed learning in the types of game-based experiences that students flock to on their own. Whether we will invest in creating these new online worlds in which students can explore and collaborate indeed represents a key to the future of our nation.

In the Epilogue, perhaps the most provocative essay, From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom, Prensky stretches his own digital muscles and peers into the future. Can the new generation of digital tools extend our senses and enhance our capacities, and, in essence, make us better, more compassionate people? I share Marcs hopeful vision for this future and believe that with pathfinders like him, we have a better chance of creating that wiser, more peaceful world.

Milton Chen
Senior Fellow,
The George Lucas Educational
Foundation and Chairman,
Panasonic Foundation

Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, visionary, and innovator in the field of education and learning. Marcs professional focus is on reinventing the learning process, designing new pedagogy and curriculum for the digital generation, and combining the motivation of new technology, video games, and other highly engaging activities with educational and business content. Considered one of the worlds leading experts on the connection between technology and learning, Prensky was called by