While our schools and education system today deal with the first two groups reasonably well, the third group is a real challenge. In fact, for educators today, it is the challenge. “Engage me or enrage me,” these students demand. And believe me, they’re enraged.

Here's what I'm struggling to see: Why are folks arguing so hard for boredom? Why are folks arguing so hard for mundanity and slogging through? Why can't we escape 'the Tyranny of the OR?' In my own life I've found that the more my work is also recreational, the more I like it. It's not that I'm engaged in recreation instead of work. It's that my work becomes more recreation-like (i.e., fun, engaging, interesting). If people work at it, align things right, and maybe get a little lucky, the difference between recreation and work can be awfully slim and life can be rewarding and energizing. There's tremendous power in being in a job that seems like play because you like it so much!

Games and simulations take us so far, but they don't take us all the way there. There is a difference between having a hobby that you love and spending a few zillion hours on it and doing what you need to do be a productive member of society. What we have to gain from Prensky's argument isn't that we should use games to teach, even if that is what he suggests. What we have to gain from the argument is this -- what is it that our hobbies have in common that engage us? What is it that causes us to fall in love with doing something such that we can do it for hours? Hopefully, in the case of computer games, it's not just the cool graphics and opportunities to blow stuff up (or build civilizations or find a way for the 2005 Eagles to win the Madden Bowl) but there's something about the way we play that is engaging. Hopefully, when it comes to internet communication technology, it's not just the immediacy of the communications or the ability to have seventeen IM conversations at once, (or even that because the conversations happen more slowly than verbal conversations that you don't have to have as much to say) but that there is something new and interesting about the way we talk online that is exciting. How do we mine that and bring it back to the classroom? How do we find a way to teach kids that finding your own path to engagement and not always relying on others to do it for you is a powerful tool for self-actualization?

My emerging theory of "education by engagement and construction," ... Shneiderman, Ben, Engagement and construction: Educational strategies for the post-TV ...

I don't think prensky would draw such a crowd if his talk was marketed along the lines of "engagement in education" rather than "games and education" ...

From Mark, “For today’s kids ot learn, engagement is more important than content. ... 6 Responses to 'BLC06: Mark Prensky, Engage Me or Enrage Me' ...

Educators have slid into the 21st century—and into the digital age—still doing a great many things the old way. It's time for education leaders to raise their heads above the daily grind and observe the new landscape that's emerging. Recognizing and analyzing its characteristics will help define the education leadership with which we should be providing our students, both now and in the coming decades.