Technology in the classroom part 2

Well, as I was saying, I went to the literature and found that it's true, that the new generation learns differently from the rest of this, and this is because of the all the stimuli they've been exposed to.
Mark Prensky calls the kids born after 1982 "digital natives", while the rest of us are "digital immigrants". The digital natives have been using technology all their lives, so much so, that they no longer think of it as technology. Cell phones, for example, are not technology, they are indispensable gadgets to be used whenever they need to communicate with friends.
Those of us born before 1982 tend to learn in a more linear fashion: we go from point a to point b and then to point c. Our students, on the other hand, jump around from one thing to another: they learn in "hyperlinks"- that is, they start at point a, but there's no telling where they will end up or what points they will pass on their journey.
By the way, that's a hyperlink on Mark Prensky's name. If you click on it, it will take you to the article.
Another thing about these digital natives is their ability to "multitask", which means they can do lots of things at the same time: they are paying attention in class- believe it or not- at the same time they are doing homework from another class, at the same time they are surfing on the Web, at the same time they are sending text messages from their cell phones. It drives us crazy, and we can't possibly imagine that they can- and do- pay attention to us, because we don't work in the same way.
So what does this mean for the classroom? We'll talk about it tomorrow.