EMPOWERED!

Marc Prensky (2022). EMPOWERED!: 

                                   Reframing 'Growing Up' for a New Age

Prensky, graduate of Harvard Business School, coined the phrase "digital native" in 2000, and as of 2023 wrote 10 books, mostly about digital natives (those born roughly from the year 2000 onward).

The book is a radical reframing of beliefs, worldviews, paradigms, and mindsets regarding the process of growing up with a focus on people that are young during the next 20 years...from parental control to guidance, from academic schooling to empowerment, from jobs/careers to pursing dreams that make the world a better place...he calls this EMPOWERMENT.

Empowerment supports people that are young in choosing real world projects to accomplish. Every project has a measurable positive impacts on the world (pre-post measures). Every project helps people that are young discover and develop their unique skills, knowledge, and added value for the world...this begins with connecting people digitally worldwide in empowerment hubs to facilitate teamwork.

Prensky is already doing this! He provides examples of other harbingers at the end of each chapter as well as questions for reflection.

Prensky's radical ideas are challenging for me as a digital immigrant, AND i support the idea of empowering people that are young in accomplishing real world projects that have positive measurable impacts on our world, especially as an alternative to traditional academic schooling in the U.S.

I still have many questions that you might consider as well:

who decides what projects people that are young work on (especially the under 5 years old category)...i understand that we want these ideas to emerge from the interests of the people, AND it seems prudent that some safeguards are in place for this process of discovery...e.g., if a 3 year old wants to build a device that blows up his enemies, that is not something we want to encourage...we need to pass on human values that support life and peace not death and violence! also, who and how will we teach them about the dangers of the internet: predators, scams, porn, and unethical uses of violence (e.g., torture, rape...)? 

adults need to listen better and deeper to people that are young--agreed! i don't see a similar emphasis on people that are young learning face to face live communication as interpersonal skills...instead i see an emphasis on connecting with others digitally...how, where, when will people learn interpersonal communication skills...are not things like caring and love expressed through human touch just as important as technologically connecting with others on-line?

for the products that young people create that have a measurable positive impact on the world, how will we prevent greedy organizations from gobbling up these creative inventions before they reach their intended end user/audience/market...e.g., an idea for creating renewable energy in one's backyard will surely be bought up by the energy companies and/or made unlawful. 

where is living in harmony with nature in this technology based idea of empowerment, or even simply spending time in the natural world to balance out our time in the digital world...some basic understanding, respect, and care for nature should be part of everyone's education and daily life...we have a responsibility to care for the planet.

why do we not interrogate technologies instead of immediately embrace and use whatever the newest gadget or software is available...e.g., components of our cell phones and computers are mined from the earth and parts of them, like batteries, are not renewable but go into a landfill...if for examples soon to be 8 billion people are throwing away batteries on a regular basis, and we keep digging up the earth to replace them, we will surely (along with other destructive tech practices like pesticides used by agribusiness) destroy the earth! we need not just sustainable but renewable technologies that work in harmony with nature to survive on planet earth in the long run...let's think: will this benefit the 7th generation down the road.

what is the short and long term impact of digital technology on our physical health--the nearly  continuous exposure to some electrical fields of our technologies on human tissues (including the eye, skin, and functioning of the human nervous system and internal organs may be toxic when it reaches a certain point of exposure...this make me wary of the symbiosis of technology idea in cases like smart phones pressed against our bodies most of the day, or sitting and staring at "screens" of one kind or another for 8+ hours a day with few breaks.