When Science Fiction Becomes Reality

 

On the Fear of the New to the Old

The year
is 1984 and
I am in
my                            white                          linen
dress                      sitting on                   a couch 
on stage while all the parents in the audience watch
the play about the satanic cabal that is promoting TVs
that have secret cameras and microphones to record the
activities of the occupants of the house.  I dramatically shake my
shoulders             with evil glee to think that Satan will                   soon
rule                 the world because the stupid earth inhabitants               have
foolishly allowed Satan into their homes through
their TV watching habits.  Their privacy has been 
compromised.  Satan knows all; he sees all; you are his.
Quake in fear, foolish mortal, at the inevitable rise of Satan.

The picture above does exist somewhere in an old high school yearbook under the heading of Drama Club.   In 1985 when I graduated, my high school had just upgraded from computers that used cassette tapes, to computers that used floppy discs and I could schedule time in the computer room if I needed to write a report for a computer class.  The modem sound of going online was an audible reminder that you were entering another world.  To Prensky (2001) I fall undoubtably into the Digital Immigrant category. 

When I think about Prensky (2001) I am reminded of how so much science fiction becomes reality.  How it changes from fiction, to possibility, to a reality that is similar to but not the same as, to a mindset of how could it ever have been different? In some ways, I see many of the activities that my young friends do naturally, like constant texting, significant portions of time in online gaming and social media use, and the blithe attitude we have all seemed to develop about our online footprint, the tracking of whereabouts, purchases, and searches, that Prensky (2001) and twinges of fear over "what the world is coming to." Then I think of all the ways that learning is better for me now than it was my first go around in college.  How it seems seamless to access hundreds of thousands of research papers, adaptive learning platforms that brought my math skills up to par, discussions with all the fun people that I have in which I get to think about and curate my responses.  Digital learning is just easier for me; I learn more, retain more, and my retrieval skills get higher and higher as time goes on, I like the cascade of stars raining down on my submission of an assignment, and the reshifting of focus from beating me over the head with test scores, to a transition of embracing open book tests in a digital format and making the tests part of the learning.  

On the other hand, I am me, and no one else is and we all have our own unique combination of intelligences that help us learn.  What works for the select children of Prensky's observations, will not work for learners that may be kinesthetic, or emotional learners. There is no one size fits all with learning.  As Kirschner and Bruyckere (2017) note, young people engagement are varied and often don't live up to the stereotypes.  Those that don't engage because of income or inclination face the same challenges as those of us who are "immigrants".  While the metaverse is a Science Fiction come true moment in our history as a species, looking up how do something on the internet or playing a game will never replace the experiential learning and emotional wellbeing of getting outside and getting your hands dirty. 

References: 

Kirschner, Paul A., and Pedro De Bruyckere. "The myths of the digital native and the multitasker." Teaching and Teacher Education 67 (2017): 135-142.

Prensky, M. "Digital natives digital immigrants" On the Horizon NCB University Press, 9(5), 1e6 (2001). https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf. Accessed 25 January, 2022