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Marc Prensky        

Education and Learning Keynote Speaker and Writer; "On the Horizon"

Marc Prensky, coiner of the terms “Digital Native” and “Digital Immigrant,” is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant and innovator in the fields of education and learning. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between learning and technology, Marc’s professional focus is on designing better pedagogy and curriculum for the digital generation and on helping people understand how to thrive in the digital age. Known for his original, innovative ideas, he is also practical: Strategy+Business magazine calls Prensky “that rare visionary who implements.”

Prensky focuses on how to best put human minds and digital tools together wisely in school and in life. In education he takes the perspective of the students, as well as than the providers, offering solutions both for how to teach and motivate today’s students, and for how to motivate and reinvigorate teachers. Through his writings and talks, he helps educators learn to adapt their pedagogy in ways that are far more effective for the 21st century, including a new form of “partnering” between teachers and students. In his business talks, he shows people how to succeed in the turbulent 21st century.

In his talks around the globe, Marc initiates and conducts unique educator-student and manager-worker dialogues about the teaching, training and learning processes. His innovative combination of pedagogy and technology— including digital game-based learning, where he was an early business pioneer—is becoming increasingly accepted and used worldwide as the wave of the future. Marc also focuses on how to teach future-oriented skills—including problem-solving, partnering, collaborating in online communities, video-making and programming—as an integrated part of all curricula. He is a strong partisan of teachers’ knowing and using students’ individual passions as motivators and of students’ participation in the design of their own education.

Marc has published five books and scores of essays and articles, including the seminal "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" in 2001. His books include "Digital Game-Based Learning," "Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning," "Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning" and "From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom" and "BRAIN GAIN: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom." He graduated cum laude from Oberlin College, holds Master’s degrees from Yale University, Middlebury College, and from The Harvard Business School with distinction, ran a charter school in East Harlem, NY, and has taught at all levels, from elementary to college.

Marc also performed on Broadway and at Lincoln Center, worked on Wall Street, and spent six years as a corporate strategist and product development director with the prestigious Boston Consulting Group. After his wide variety of experiences, he is thrilled to be back working in the field of education and learning.

Marc is a native New Yorker, where he lives with his wife Rie, a Japanese writer, and their son Sky.

Speech Topics


Teaching And Training In The 21st Century

The concepts of “teaching” and “training” are going through profound changes in our time—and not just because of technology. In the past, our educational goals evolved from “imitating” to “learning.” But to deal with our turbulent times, it is now necessary, says Marc Prensky, to adopt the far more far-reaching and useful goal of “becoming.” In our turbulent third millennium, with its coming deep exploration of both outer and virtual space, we need all our students and workers to become capable, good people who improve the world they live in. To succeed going forward, says Prensky, all students and all workers will need to master, in all their complex facets, the core skills of Effective Thinking, Effective Action, Effective Relationships and Effective Accomplishment—strongly supported by technology. In this original and insightful talk, Prensky shows audiences how such a “new core” can be integrated into our teaching and training, using a new methodology of “accomplishment-based education.” Prensky also shows how to avoid letting the “luster” of the new technologies mask the real progress we need in education and training.

Powerfully Integrating Technology

Although everyone knows today’s technology is powerful, far too many, limited by past experience, see it only as a new and faster way to do things we could do before. This narrow vision is only the “trivial” side of technology use, argues Marc Prensky. There is a much more powerful set of new technology uses empowering all of us—even elementary school students—to do things that humans could never do before. Prensky guides us through this new world, including real-time visual communication with almost anyone in the world, meeting in virtual worlds, powerful simulations, robotics, analyzing huge databases, and shows how everyone—from students to business people—can use and benefit from these powerful technology tools—more and more of which we have in our pockets to improve our school, work and personal lives. In this amusing, powerful and future-oriented talk, Prensky shows how we can avoid “digital stupidity” and become digitally wiser, more powerful people, who can use our powerful technology to improve the world.

Expanding Minds For The 3rd Millenium

Most see today’s digital technology as a useful—but optional—tool in their lives. Marc Prensky argues the opposite—that technology is now required, and that turning it off makes us lesser human beings. The reason, he says, is that technology is now an extension of our minds. Although we are long accustomed to having our bodies extended by technology (think clothing and transportation), it is now the brain’s turn, and this new territory is unfamiliar to everyone. Prensky helps audiences understand how and why the same technology that is scaring many in the older, pre-Internet generations to death is also greatly empowering and exciting today’s youth. In this counterintuitive and mind-expanding talk, Prensky illustrates how technology is expanding our minds in both a physical and metaphorical sense, and how our expanded minds are changing society in more profound ways than many realize.

Today’s Digital Natives—And Tomorrow’s

A decade and a half ago, when Marc Prensky coined the terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants,” there was no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, not even You Tube! And yet the huge cultural and attitudinal changes to come were already being perceived by him. Today, many of these changes are recognized by all—although not always as helpful. But, says Prensky, not only are most of them positive, there are many more dramatic positive changes to come. In this original perceptive talk, Prensky shows just how much the world’s culture and context are in rapid flux because of technology, and how the concept of digital natives has evolved to be more a cultural one than a technological one. Prensky offers new perspectives on our complex and rapidly changing technology and times, and helps audiences explore and understand how digital natives—and all of us—can, and should, be adapting for the future.

CRAFTING A REAL 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION!—Beyond Just “Creativity” and “Entrepreneurship”

COMBINING THE STRENGTHS OF NATIVES AND IMMIGRANTS: How To All Teach, Learn and Thrive Together in a Digital World

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TEACHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY – How All Teachers Can Adapt

ENGAGING AND EDUCATING OUR DIGITAL NATIVE LEARNERS

PARTNERING: The Right Pedagogy for Today’s Students

BEYOND JUST ADDING TECHNOLOGY: What Do We Build On This New Foundation?

THE GOAL IS NOT “LEARNING,” BUT “BECOMING”: What Education Should Really Be About

EXPANDING STUDENTS’ AND TEACHERS’ MINDS for the 21st Century

DIGITAL WISDOM for Administrators, Teachers and Students

POWERFULLY INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY into Our Classrooms and Teaching

NEW BASICS AND NEW BALANCE FOR A NEW AGE: Radically Rethinking the K-12 Curriculum for 21st Century Success

“FUTURE-CATION” – Making Today’s Education Not Just About the Past

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News


What does it mean to be a digital native? - CNN.com
U.S. author Marc Prensky says that at no time in history has technology ... The post-millennial "digital native," a term coined by U.S. author Marc Prensky in 2001 ...

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