Marc Prensky made several great points in his article, "Blame Our Young? Or Use Their Passion!". Placing the blame on students for not being more dedicated to school is not going to solve any problems that the education system or society has. Students need to be more engaged in learning in order to benefit from their education. When learning becomes a chore, as it is for so many students today, that is when the system has failed them.
With all the technology available in today's world, children should be able to make use it during the school day. Obviously the children are using these mediums outside of school, so they would have the ability to utilize these tools in a constructive way. By tapping into this passion that they already have, educators can hope that they will be able to better reach their students and get them more involved and interested in the topics being taught. The concept that school is a place for boring lectures and tedious note taking while after school is the time for fun games and collaborating with friends on the Internet, is a perception all too common among children. If technology is brought into the classroom, perhaps we can begin to break these barriers and bring students' interest back into the classroom. And wouldn't that benefit everyone?
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