Prensky And The Clever Youth Of America

In Reponse To "Listen to the Natives":
I think that Prensky gets a bit ahead of himself in this article. Yes, we should certainly be listening to our students and learning about their digital culture as they share their point of view. However, it is unnecessary to learn about many of the digital functions "out there" in order to educate our students. Students will still want connection with people, and that is a need that teachers can meet (whether or not they moonlight as Ebay novelty merchants). If anything, the technological gap is an opportunity for connection with students. Teachers can help their students put technology in perspective, and help students to not be enveloped by the far reaching tentacles of this digital age.
I'm becoming more indignant of this digital age, as it seems to encourage distant relationships instead of intimate friendships. We have so low expectations for community and friendship. And this may not all be at fault of computers, but the combination of a weak human nature with computers.
Prensky thinks we should integrate students' use of video games into education? This may be helpful to a point, but many students are wasting their young lives in fabricated worlds of pixels and gigabytes. Discussion of video games may well be facilitated around the topic of unhealthy escapism.
Hopefully we do not adopt Prensky's anxiety concerning communicating with youth. It may well trip up good interaction with students.