An interesting and important differentiation exists between how today’s students (digital natives) and how most of their teachers (digital immigrants) view today’s digital technology. This difference carries enormous implications for those in charge of course development and delivery in academia.
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Marc Prensky
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Digital immigrants view digital technology as a series of tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Flash. The tools can be used to get various things done. Each can be mastered (and taught) individually. In fact, you may right now be offering a “course” in any one of them, as does TV’s “Video Professor.”
Put in other terms, our professors who are digital immigrants see the technology as a series of “programs” or “things” or – in linguistic terms – Nouns.
Today’s students, if they are “native speakers” of digital technology view it in a very different way. They see technology as the means of getting things done: of communicating, of sharing, of presenting, etc.
In linguistic terms our students see technology as Verbs
They don’t learn to “use their cell phone." They learn to “communicate” using its various modes. They text. They IM. They talk. Similarly, they don’t learn PowerPoint. They learn to present. And as soon as any tool becomes too limiting for them - they switch. With cell phones this happens at least once a year; with PowerPoint it happens around 6th grade for our very brightest, and they switch to Flash or video tools - whatever they can get that is at the time the most advanced tool for the "verb" they are engaged in.
Who cares?
This noun/verb distinction is important for us to recognize and understand, because “Nouns” – i.e. categories or things – are how we conceive and structure almost our entire curriculum. Look at your course titles. Are they nouns like Organic Chemistry? Or are they verbs like “Understanding, Making and Using Compounds with Carbon?”
You may ask, What’s the difference? I respond that the difference is profound. The Noun approach emphasizes that our teaching is essentially about “stuff,” or “topics.” And teaching “stuff” is harder and harder to do in our age of exponential information growth. Sure, well-organized “stuff” is important, but technology puts most of it right at your fingertips.
On the other hand, the Verb approach emphasizes action, which includes understanding, doing, and creativity. And that includes finding the stuff. John Dewey would say the Verb approach emphasizes learning by doing.
Most of the Nouns will change over time. The actions our students need to take - physical and mental - are the real hallmarks of the educated person we are trying to produce. Those actions will remain pretty much the same.
21st Century skills expressed as verbs
1. Knowing the right thing to do
Behaving ethically, thinking critically, setting goals, exercising good judgment and making good decisions.
2. Getting it done
Planning, solving problems, self-directing, self-assessing and iterating.
3. Doing it with others
Taking leadership, communicating/interacting with individuals and groups, communicating/interacting with machines and/or with a world audience and/or across cultures.
4. Doing it creatively
Adapting, thinking creatively, tinkering and designing, playing and finding your voice.
5. Constantly doing it better
Reflecting, taking prudent risks, thinking long-term and continually improving through learning.
Please note that many of these terms and ideas were published in Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. We actually know the habits of highly successful people, yet who among us incorporates the learning and practice of these habits into our teaching?
“Learning by doing” has been a tenet of progressive education for a long time. With digital technology and digital natives we can really practice it. That's exciting! Let's dump some nouns and bring on the verbs!
Marc Prensky is the founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Pfizer and virtual schools in Los Angeles and Florida. Contact him at marc@games2train.com.