After reading Prensky’s article, I suppose I am a digital native by definition. I am 20 years old and was born when technology was just beginning to become a big part of everyday life. I can remember playing “Oregon Trail” and “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” at school and on friend’s computers in the second grade. I can also remember playing on the first Apple computers in Middle School computer class. Let’s not forget the Caller ID, which was just about the coolest invention yet when I was in fourth grade.

Although technology has been a big part of my life, I have noticed that my little sister, who is 13, is even more advanced with technology than I am. It seems as if people today can’t go a day without checking their text messages or logging on to MySpace, and I am just as guilty as the next person on this one. With all of the amazing technological advancements, it is no wonder that “school often feels pretty much as if we’ve brought in a population of heavily accented, unintelligible foreigners to lecture” to kids these days (Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Page 2). On page 3 in Prensky’s second article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II”, he said “brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop differently, and that people who undergo different inputs from the culture that surrounds them think differently”, which definitely contributes to the way that young people think and learn these days.

I agree with Prensky that something needs to be done to bridge the gap between digital natives and immigrants in order for children to continue to have the desire to learn and to learn effectively as time goes on. The old fashioned ways of teaching are just not as effective as they used to be and it probably does have something to do with the way brains are evolving and adapting to all the new technologies.

                Computers have been a helpful learning tool to me all of my school years, but especially now with these online learning programs in college. Computers have allowed me to catch up with old friends I haven’t seen in years and to go to class without leaving my house, but sometimes I feel as if computers take away from personal, face-to-face relationships with other people. I do enjoy the convenience of the online courses though.

At home I have Verizon DSL and I usually log on at night after work and on the weekends on either my laptop or my home computer, but sometimes my laptop is not fast enough for the digital native in me. I was fortunate enough to go to a vocational technical high school and to be in the Business Technology program, where we used computers every day, every other week in shop. In that program, I learned to use all of the Microsoft Office Suite Programs and probably about 15 to 17 of the technology skills listed. I feel that Vocational Technical schools are one of the best ways of bridging the gap between digital natives and digital immigrants, because they try so hard to keep up with all of the skills necessary to get a job in today’s technologically advanced world.