Week 10- Q1

1) How might Wenger's notions on practice communities relate to Prensky's on education?

Etienne Wenger developed the concept of "Community of Practice", which basically means a "group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly"(Wenger). A community of practice is an identity and is shared by all those in the group that share the common interest. Communities among practioners create a direct link between learning and performance. Wenger is saying that groups of people with shared interests will learn better as they are able to interact with one another regularly.

Prensky's notions on education include the idea that teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students, therefor adapting themselves to a digital natives way of thinking and in effect helping them to learn quicker. Prensky also believes that teaching much be more"faster, instead of step by step- a more parallell content, with more random access" He also believes 2 contents are vital, Legacy content- readings, writing, arithmetic and Future Content- digital and technological. Lastly Prensky devises his idea that all this could be solved with inventing computer games to educate. Learning takes place in communities, if a community of practice is set up in schools, students could learn better through technology by teachers that are able to relate to students because they have also learnt about technology and ways to incorporate it in a positive way. If teachers are able to learn to communicate in a way that students can understand and relate to their language then the learning process will be a much quicker, efficient process.