Reflections on, 'In class I have to power down.'

This article by david Puttnam paints a pretty dim picture of schools nowadays and their failure to keep up with the times. In a conference in San Francisco, one child said that in school he has to 'power down.' This comment highlights the fact that children today are often using more advanced equipment, doing more interesting things and operating in a more sophisticated way out of school compared to in school. This reflects the fact that the education system has seemed to ignore the fast changing world and many teachers are reluctant to move education forward in keeping with the 'digital age.'

Shouldn't school be a place which exhilarates children and expands their skills so that they reach their highest potential?? Unfortunately, in many schools this is not the case. Schools seem to have ignored the fact that the world is moving faster than ever before and that teachers have the duty to prepare children for life in a technologically advancing world. As Mark Prensky claims, digital natives' minds are programmed differently and the traditional education system no longer challenges or excites the digital native.

So let's not ignore the fact that children today are more stimulated by computer games, youtube, and web2. Instead, as teachers we need to embrace new technologies and find out how best to incorporate it into our teaching in order to bring back that spark to education that unfortunately has been lost in many schools...