Crompton, Marc
Prensky, M. (2008). Turning On the Lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.Retrieved from ERIC via EBSCOHost.
Prensky presents a straightforward argument where school used to be a place where students were enlightened with new knowledge of the world outside of their immediate experience and students today actually "power down" for their in-school time. The school used to be the fountain of knowledge and the teacher was the one who introduced new ideas to students and explained how the world worked. As the students are exposed to an ever increasing amount of information through TV and digital sources, the teacher is less needed to introduce those new ideas. Unfortunately, the education system has remained stuck in the content delivery mode, giving students information that they already have or have no interest in. The role of the education system needs to become more one of helping students build context and meaning around the information that they already have.
This article was published 4 years ago and while the basic idea that education needs to be process not content focused is no longer new to anyone who is paying attention, the idea of students actually "powering down" as Prensky calls it is a concept that is new to me. I love the way he uses the light bulb analogy to bring a sense of urgency to the issue while explaining a component that is not necessarily evident to all. The concept that the majority of students are shutting off for the school day simply because of a lack of relevance is scary. His claim is that 50-70% of middle and high school students are bored. It means that not only are schools not doing their job, they are actually harming students. This is unforgivable.
K-12 schools, especially those like the university-prep school that I teach in, hide behind the need for quantifiable measures to get our students into the competitive universities that they are applying to. If student X needs to get into Ivy League University Y, they need to have a GPA of Z and have received a 5 on at least 4 AP exams. Then we say that if they want to succeed at said university, they'd better be experienced at writing intense standardized tests. My feeling is that this attitude is less and less true. The universities aren't stupid. They're dealing with the same issues that we are. Students need to know how to build knowledge not regurgitate facts. Their assessment and evaluation methods will have to shift just as ours do. I'm sure in many instances, they are way ahead of us. So let's encourage inquiring and help students to build their own knowledge. Worry less about content and let's get the students powered back up!
Interesting post, Marc. I think educators may have heard the general statement "I am bored" or "This is boring" from students so often that they begin to take it less seriously. Nonetheless, boredom is a serious issue that indicates a total lack of engagement with learning. When you pointed out that 50-70% of secondary school students are "bored," this suggests that we must make our students more active participants in learning. A virtual learning commons and other student-centered projects would make learning more exciting as students become engaged in creating knowledge in a high-tech environment.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for taking the time to read and comment, Marina. I think that we're too quick to find external reasons for failures in education and while there are many roadblocks put in our place by lack of resources and time, we need to look at how (if?) we are engaging students first. While I'm a big fan of technology as well, I think that we have to be careful how we use it. Our use of technology has to be genuine, thoughtful and authentic. We can't simply assume that technology, in and of itself, will engage students. We have to use the right technology for the right reasons. A virtual learning commons and a high-tech environment CAN engage students IF it is authentic and is developed because it comes from a place of genuine student interest.
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