Week 1 Blog #2

The article written by Marc Prensky Programming is the New Literacy (2008) compares the literate person of today with the highly literate person of the future. He makes very interesting comparisons. For example, the literate person of today may write a birthday card note for a young niece vs. the highly literate person of tomorrow programming the child a game.
Prensky notes that parents and teachers disrespect today's youth for not being 'literate' in reading and writing, yet the youth, or young citizens of the future, have no respect for adults who can't program a DVD player, a mobile phone, a computer, or anything else.. He goes on to write that 'today's kids already see their parents and teachers as the illiterate ones' (p. 6)
He goes on to ask a very interesting but important question, "How do we, as educators, make our students literate?" How do we, the digital immigrant, teach what we don't have enough skills on? A question to ponder considerably. Prensky continues to write that if an answer is not found, the kids will figure out ways to teach themselves; the outcome? 'Literacy without (official) teachers' (p. 7) Is this outcome possible?
Will Richardson, in his article World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others expresses that the teacher-guided curriculum is becoming less relevant, as a result of the Web offering its users to learn whatever, whenever, by whomever they want. Is the Web making the learner the teacher, or as Richardson writes 'we must find our own teachers, and they must find us.'

The two sites below offer valuable and updated information, blogs, and resources:

http://www.edutopia.org

http://www.educause.edu