Teaching tomorrow's literate person: Is it enough to teach to today?

http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-TheRightStuff-EdTech-May-Jun2012.pdf

This is another article by Marc Prensky that extends his general message in the previous reviewed article, “A Back-up Education”, which is that schools need to change the curriculum to meet the needs of a technologically evolving culture. In this article, Prensky gets specific about the kinds of skills that students will need to succeed in the world today, and more importantly, in the future.
Prensky summarizes the changing literacy needs:

Yesterday’s literate person can 1) write a letter, 2) write a report, 3)write an essay

Today’s literate person can 1) write an email, 2) make a power point, 3)write a blog post

Tomorrow’s literate person can 1) work in a virtual community, 2) make a video, 3)write a program

According to Prensky, even schools who are teaching today’s literacy needs are setting their students “behind the technological learning curve.” And, though elements are the future are always unknown, based on observing current trends we can make the assumption that students will need the three basic skills to succeed in the future workforce.

Response:

I think the key thing to take away from this article is that the goal of literacy is to effectively communicate—to be able to process and evaluate input, and to articulate a response. Literacy is to take information, evaluate it, and respond to it. The way in which we choose to transfer ideas, whether in a letter, email, or Skype conversation is only the method. Some methods are generally seen as more professional or effective, but I think as technology changes the way we communicate in our everyday lives, it is also changing the way we communicate professionally. That is just the way it is. So I agree with Prensky that we, as teachers, need to be aware of this shift in communication.