About the Book
An expert perspective on 21st century education
What can you learn on a cell phone? Almost anything! How does that concept fit with our traditional system of education? It doesn′t. Best-selling author and futurist Marc Prensky′s
book of essays challenges educators to "reboot" and make the changes necessary to prepare students for 21st century careers. His "bottom-up" vision is based on interviews with young people and includes their ideas about what they need from teachers, schools, and education. Also featured are easy-to-do, high-impact classroom strategies that help what he calls "digital natives" acquire "digital wisdom." This thought-provoking text is organized into two sections that address:
• Rethinking education
• 21st century learning and technology in the classroom (including games, YouTube, and more)
In addition to valuable knowledge, this compelling collection offers inspiration, new perspectives, and ideas that work. Our educational context has changed, and a new context demands new thinking. This book will broaden your mind, spark new insights regarding how and what you teach, and reshape your vision of 21st century education.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Milton Chen
About the Author
Introduction
I. Rethinking Education
1. The Reformers Are Leaving Our Schools in the 20th Century
2. On Learning
3. Educaiton as Rocket Science
4. Turning On the Lights
5. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
6. The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native
7. Young Minds, Fast Times
8. Blame Our Young? Or Use Their Passion!
9. To Educate, We Must Listen
10. Bringing the Future to School: The Prensky Challenge
11. An Open Letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Questions for Reflection
II. 21st Century Learning, and Technology in the Classroom
12. The Role of Technology in Teaching and the Classroom
13. Backup Education?
14. Simple Changes in Current Practices May Save Our Schools
15. The Longer View: Why YouTube Matters
16. Beyond the Lemonade Stand
17. Types of Learning and Possible Game Styles
18. On Being Disrespected
19. Let′s Be "Digital Multipliers"
20. Search Versus Research
21. Simulation Nation
22. What Can You Learn From a Cell Phone? Almost Anything!
23. The True 21st Century Literacy Is Programming
Epilogue: From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom
Questions for Reflection
Final Note
Index
About the Author :
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, futurist, visionary, and inventor in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books and over 60 articles on education and learning, including multiple articles in Educational Leadership, Educause, Edutopia, and Educational Technology.
Marc’s presentations around the world challenge and inspire audiences by opening up their minds to new ideas and approaches to education. One of his critically important perspectives is to look at education through the eyes of the students—during his talks, he interviews hundreds of students every year.
Marc’s professional focus has been on reinventing the learning process, combining the motivation of student passion, technology, games, and other highly engaging activities with the driest content of formal education. He is the founder of two companies: Games2train, an e-learning company whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Microsoft, Pfizer, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Florida’s and Los Angeles’s Virtual Schools; and Spree Learning, an online educational games company.
Marc is one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between games and learning, and was called by Strategy+Business magazine “that rare visionary who implements.” He has designed and built over 50 software games in his career, including worldwide,multiuser games and simulations that run on all platforms, from the Internet to cell phones. MoneyU (www.moneyu.com), his latest project, is an innovative, engaging, and effective game for teaching financial literacy to high school and college students. Marc is also the creator of www.spreelearninggames.com and www.socialimpactgames.com.His products and ideas are innovative, provocative, and challenging, and they clearly show the way of the future.
The NewYork Times,The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek,TIME, Fortune, and The Economist have all recognized Marc’s work. He has appeared on FOX News, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS’s Computer Currents, the Canadian and Australian Broadcasting Corporations, and the BBC. Marc also writes a column for Educational Technology. He was named as one of training’s top “New Breed of Visionaries” by Training magazine and was cited as a “guiding star of the new parenting movement” by Parental Intelligence Newsletter.
Marc’s background includes master’s degrees from Yale, Middlebury, and Harvard Business School (with distinction). He has taught at all levels, from elementary to college. He is a concert musician and has acted on Broadway. He spent six years as a corporate strategist and product development director with the Boston Consulting Group and worked in human resources and technology on Wall Street.
Review :
“Bringing together several of his always-provocative essays to describe his vision for the future of education, Marc Prensky offers several insights that are sure to spark a conversation and force you to question your convictions about education. Perhaps the most important one is that we should listen to the students themselves and use their insights to inform us in how we can help them succeed.”
"In a set of thought-provoking essays, Marc Prensky shows that the digital age is poised to disrupt learning. He provides a glimpse of a digital future few might imagine."
“Marc Prensky′s phrase "digital natives" has entered the international lexicon, and he continues to offer insightful and even startling commentary as we move ever deeper into the heart of an exciting new cultural era."
"In this fine collection of essays, Marc Prensky does what few education thinkers today seem willing or able to do: engage in breakthrough thinking about teaching and learning while also honoring teachers, students, and their futures!"
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"Marc Prensky has been a thought leader for this
generation of forward-thinking educators. This collection of essays will push
you, inspire you and challenge your beliefs about what students can do."
"The author′s first-person experiences as an educator directing these young ′digital natives′ with the wisdom of an experienced educator makes this rich with examples pulled from classroom interactions."
"My 6 year old son really opened my eyes to the truth in your writings. My son is very bright, but he claims he hates school and he fights me at home when I try to get him to read or practice his writing. But he LOVES games! Some days he would come home from school and ask to go online and have me find a website for him that they used at school. These games got him to practice the skills I wanted him to but in a way that engaged him."
"This collection of essays is a must read for all 21st century educators."
