21st Century Learners

1. What is your belief and understanding of the nature of today's learners? Is there substance to the "engage or enrage" argument?

Having read the article all i can say is that i understand where the author is coming from, but i completely disagree with his opinion. I see the need in the classrooms, i see that students are bored out of their minds, but turning the teacher into the class entertainer isnt the solution.

An entertainer may be what they want but not what they need

Heres a quote from the article- "“Engage me or enrage me,” these students demand". That is one of the most selfish quotes i have read in a long time. I am all for engagement in the classroom and catering to the needs of the students, but for the classroom to work, the LM manager needs to bring certain things to the table same as the students. The LM needs to bring engaging and relevant lessons and students need to bring an attitude to learn. At the same time though the LM cannot present perfect lessons each and every time, just like students cannot be expected to always be engaged in the learning, this is the harsh reality of imperfection. There is a balance that needs to be met and adhered to, this article though completely ignores this balance and lays all of the blame on educators. The apparent solution is to create a game based curriculum. This has got to be one of the most ridiculous ideas i have ever heard. The students arent stupid, turning the learning into a game isn't going to excite them to any degree. I can see the lessons being abit more fun but what is this really teaching students in the long run? It is important to take a step back and look at the schooling system from the outside. The question that needs to be asked is; What is the purpose of education?

To make my point here and ensure im not bending the facts to suit myself, the answer to this question is taken directly from the Melbourne Deceleration of Educational Goals for Young Australians.

"Education equips young people with the knowledge, understanding, skills and values to take advantage of opportunity and to face the challenges of this era with confidence."

So we know the purpose of education and the quote even answers the age old question of why. The reason is to prepare them for life. Looking at life after school, what are these challenges they will be facing? The first one that comes to mind and that will apply to every student, is the work force. Assuming their education has prepared them for this challenge, that is by equipping them with the necessary 'knowledge, understanding, skills and values' to succeed, they will be well prepared. That quote has four areas that students need to be equipped with, one of them, the one which i believe to be the most important of all is unfortunately the one this whole 'Engage or Enrage' argument is ignoring.

This ignored aspect is the one of values. Students need to value the education that is being provided to them. They need to value the work educators put in and value the importance of their behavior in the classroom. Without this key aspect the other three are useless. Assuming the success of this 'Engage me, Engage me' curriculum where educators play the role of class entertainer, students will be graduating from school with all the knowledge, understanding and skills they need. The time comes to graduate and students either find a job or go on to further study to later get a job. As soon as students leave the education system, their employer isn't going to play that role of the entertainer to ensure the worker does what is expected of them. The role is reversed and its time for the worker to play to the tune of somebody other than themselves. Having never experienced this, will the students get any job satisfaction? Will they succeed in their job? Workers wont want to be there, and their work will reflect this. Not every day is engaging and fun, work needs to be completed whether or not the worker is engaged or not.

This suggested education system will be preparing students for a world of magical ponies and fun, where the work demands that will be expected of them will gladly be modified to suit their entertainment needs. This is an imaginary world, not reality.

Here's a finishing statement made by the article author;

"So hi there, I’m the tuned-out kid in the back row with the headphones. Are you going to engage me today or enrage me? The choice is yours."

My answer to you Marc Prensky is sit up and step up. Life is hard and work is required, whether you want to do it or not. Here's the How to Guide on Life, one boring page after the other, take it or leave it. The choice is yours.