Comment on the Article:”Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”

This is one of the most interesting articles I have ever read about technology and education. The following is some of my reflection upon reading this article:
1- I am very impressed with the concept “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” which the author used to refer to the generations who grow up with new technology such as computers, videogames, digital musical players, video cams, cell phone… and those who were not born in the digital world, but are having to adapt with it. That comparison reflects correctly the difference between these 2 generations.
2- I totally agree with some view points shared by the author as follows:
+ Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Today’s students are those who have different brain structure and different thinking patterns. They are those who spend more time on video games, computers, emailing than reading. They are those who are used to receiving information very fast
+It is very important for educators to be aware of these differences between digital natives and digital immigrants, so that they will not impose their criteria on students nowadays and find the best solution to work with them.
+ There is no way we can make students nowadays change their way of learning, because our children nowadays are born into that digital world and they live with the technology advances of that world and therefore, their brain develop differently. Therefore, it is educators ( digital immigrants) that have to find solution to solve this problem. The author of the article believe that the smart way is to change our methodology and content. Specifically, the teachers have to speak their students’ language and understand their learning style. I really like the way the author divide the teaching content into 2 kinds: legacy content (traditional old content) and future content (the content relating to the issues of the digital world).
3- I have some concerns:
On one hand, I agree with the author that educators have to change their curriculum content and teaching methods to suit with new learning styles of 21 century learners. On the other hand, I can’t help worrying about negative influence of digital tools on the character development of our 21 century learners.
+Attention span: The author raised a point about short attention span of learners nowadays. They can spend hours watching TV, or playing video games or charting online, but it is so hard for them to focus long in the class. As a consequence, our learners nowadays are not patient while patience is a very important personalily for them to be successful.
+Reading habits: I feel if our learners nowadays are just used to getting information on internet, how they can develop their reading habits. Once they do not have that habit in childhood, how can they have love for reading, curiosity for knowledge when they grow up. If this is the case, who will inherit invaluable traditional values which they only might find in books. Also, if they do not have the habit of reading, they cannot improve their writing skill. In short, I think reading is also a very important personality enabling a person a lifelong learner.
+Learning games: Nowadays video games are replacing invaluable board games which are very good for children to develop interaction and social skills, problem solving skills which are very necessary qualities for children to lead successful life whey they enter their real world. Unfortunately, children never can obtain these qualities through video games.
+How to evaluate information: We are living in a fast changing world and our learners can access to information with an unbelievable speed. The important thing is to teach our learners how to evaluate the information they come across. This is also a big question for educators.