Marc Prensky response to Mark Bauerlein

I'm certainly not saying change the originals. I am saying start with bites (bytes?), particularly tasty ones, and eat the whole thing only if and when you want to. Every once in a while a Roberto Benigni comes along and makes us want to dig into Dante further. I'd start my students with him.

BTW, do you (and your students) read Dante in Italian? Remember, in translation *all* the words have been changed.

On writing without computers: Speaking purely personally (n=1), when I was in business I used to drive my secretaries sick with change after change as I altered and hopefully improved my writing each time I reread it. They all cheered when I got a computer. ...

Earlier, in college, I got so tired of retyping, that eventually I handed in my typed first drafts with millions of corrections scribbled on them (my motto was "one and done"). Wouldn't you rather read the final computer draft?

I truly *do not get* the value of longhand writing. I'd lose the train of thought before it ever hit the paper.

To me, reflection is not a long, time-consuming process, and it is worthless to be asked to "sit and reflect" for more than a minute or two. Reflection (i.e. thoughts) is/are a series of almost instantaneous flashes that happen typically when they happen, and change over time. What do I think right now? What do I think in a day, in a week, in a year? The time consuming, often boring, out-loud "reflecting" we do in class is only an artifact of the fact that that's how we teach. There are lots of other ways to think, reflect (and share) differently, and in my view we should be looking for and using them, instead of "reflecting" ourselves and each other to death in classroom discussions.

N=1, perhaps.