21st Century Overload

I just got done reading an article by Marc Prensky titled, "The Natives."  In a nutshell, the article looked at how our "21st Century" students are way beyond us teachers in technology and integrating it in their lives.  Our children we teach are digital natives, as he calls it, and many of us are digital immigrants.  The role of the teacher, according to Prensky, is changing dramatically.  He says:

As educators, we must take our cues from our students' 21st century innovations and behaviors, abandoning, in many cases, our own predigital instincts and comfort zones. Teachers must practice putting engagement before content when teaching. They need to laugh at their own digital immigrant accents, pay attention to how their students leam, and value and honor what their students know. They must remember that they are teaching in the 21st century.

I will say that, straight out of the gate, this article rubbed me the wrong way.  Now Prensky might say that I am simply reacting against the reality of these 21st century needs, just like an immigrant might complain of his children leaving the ways of tradition, but this certainly isn't the case. 

I am a child of the 21st century and technology feels like an extension of my brain.

What I didn't like about this article was the blind acceptance of the world our children live in and how he believes our response should be to cater our education to their needs.  He states, "As 21st century educators, we can no longer decide for our students; we must decide with them, as strange as that may feel to many of us."  I am not advocating pushing our students away from all of their interests and teaching only what I believe to be relevant.  Yet, I believe that as adults with hopefully some more experience, that what we believe to be important might actually be, regardless of whether or not students push back in protest!

Looks like I'm starting to where my philosophy of education on my sleeves :)

I just really believe it to be important that we don't just study our student's interests, motivations and influences and modify our education accordingly, without critically looking what might actually be flawed in their worldview!  

Technology is doing many a great thing and Prensky is right in saying we need to catch up in American education.  However, there are serious flaws and issues involving what technology has given us.  Will teaching our children to learn through video games prepare them for rigorous study in college?  Will making everything online and tangible help our distracted students learn how to truly focus for a long period of time?  Is blogging (ironic...) and texting teach our students to really learn how to express themselves with their words, or will it lead to a bastardized version of the English language, completely stripped of it's power to communicate?  LOL and OMG just doesn't seem to cut it, in my mind, as a legit expression of excitement or distaste.  

Technology has given us so much.  It truly is important that our children learn the 21st century skills, especially critical thinking, analysis and good research.  On the flip side, I also hope to teach children how to critique the world they are surrounded in and how to critically assess what they think is just "how it is."  This includes what technology has given us.

Let's not simply adapt to our students, but listen to them and analyze what they give us.  Let's do our children a favor by learning from them, but also pushing them in directions they might not be okay with. The best lessons I've ever learned in life were not always fun or engaging in the moment.....

Okay, rant over.  What do you guys think?  Am I over critical in this, because I kind of feel like I'm overreacting...but maybe not.  Maybe I just didn't enjoy the fact that he said 21st century around 1 million times..

Here's a question:

  Are our current problems with students lacking interest in school only because we don't engage them on their level?  Could it be that their are another issues screaming out?  

-Sell.