Teaching Digital Natives
Partnering for Real Learning
Foreword by Stephen Heppell
Marc Prensky, who first coined the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants," presents an intuitive yet highly innovative and field-tested partnership model that promotes 21st-century student learning through technology. Partnership pedagogy is a framework in which:
- Digitally literate students specialize in content finding, analysis, and presentation via multiple media
- Teachers specialize in guiding student learning, providing questions and context, designing instruction, and assessing quality
- Administrators support, organize, and facilitate the process schoolwide
- Technology becomes a tool that students use for learning essential skills and "getting things done"
With numerous strategies, how-to's, partnering tips, and examples, Teaching Digital Natives is a visionary yet practical book for preparing students to live and work in today's globalized and digitalized world.
“Marc Prensky’s understanding of how school-age digital natives learn underpins his prescient ‘pedagogy of partnering.’ He looks to the learner as the first consideration in the educational equation. The insightful advice and gentle guidance Marc provides classroom teachers directly assist them in moving powerful digital tools into the right hands…their students’! Marc’s understanding that the pedagogy of partnering is built on a relationship of co-learning is fundamental to the 21st-century classroom. This book looks to the future with an urgent spirit of possibility and promise!”
"In Teaching Digital Natives, Marc Prensky redefines the whole problem of digitally savvy kids being taught by un-digitally-savvy teachers. Rather than bemoaning, as nearly everyone else has, what teachers do not know, he celebrates what they do know and what they can do. He shows how teachers and students together can pool knowledge and engage in collective intelligence to make both teachers and students—and society—smarter in the act.This book is a must-read for anyone interested in school reform and 21st-century learning."
“Core curriculum, 21st-century skills, rigor, and methodology are outlined in a way all educators can appreciate and implement. Teaching Digital Natives is a must for all educators who strive to meet the emerging demands of our profession.”
“Prensky takes the task of marshalling 21st-century technologies for classroom instruction to a practical level that teachers can both understand and apply immediately. The concept of partnering and allowing both teachers and students to capitalize on their strengths clarifies the issue for educators. The good news: teachers don’t have to be masters of technology to master the 21st-century classroom. Prensky has developed a new map for a new era of teaching and learning that educators will find a breeze to navigate, and well worth the trip!”
“In Teaching Digital Natives, Prensky laments the fact that many educators today think students have short attention spans. He points out that although this may be true in the context of school, most students concentrate just fine on things that interest them. The book then explains to educators how to make school an interesting place for students with a partnering pedagogy.”
“Teaching Digital Natives is a must-read book for those of us who use technology, those who need more details about why we must use technology in our teaching, and for all teachers of teachers to use as a crucial text in their classes.”
“Marc Prensky assimilates teaching, learning, and technology into a brilliant how-to for 21st-century teachers and students. This book will set the educational preparation world on its heels with a compelling argument for positive change.”
“This book is a must-read for any educator who wants to successfully work with the digital generation.”
“A truly great and inspiring book. Teaching Digital Natives is required reading for educators who want to reach out and engage students in their classrooms.”
“Marc Prensky’s introduction of the partnering concept for teaching and learning is brilliant in its simplicity. The real power of Teaching Digital Natives is that the author has carefully defined and redefined the roles of teachers, learners, and parents with concrete examples and practical hints. I found myself anticipating each ‘practical tips’ box with excitement. Finally someone has written a book for teachers that goes beyond pedagogy and philosophy, giving teachers something they can use on Monday morning!”