Mirror, mirror on the wall…

I'm still reflecting on Marc Prensky's writing about digital natives, specifically where he identifies reflection as a key area lost in the "reprogramming" of the digital native. Prensky challenges educators "to figure out and invent ways to include reflection and critical thinking in the learning but still do it in the Digital Native language."

Thankfully several educators seem to have picked up the challenge. I like Helen Barrett's ideas (thanks to Jeremy for putting me on to her trail) about the role of portfolios in reflective practice. I especially enjoyed reading her quote Paulson & Paulson:

A portfolio tells a story. It is the story of knowing. Knowing about things… Knowing oneself… Knowing an audience… Portfolios are students' own stories of what they know, why they believe they know it, and why others should be of the same opinion. A portfolio is opinion backed by fact… Students prove what they know with samples of their work.

It seems to me that in adopting digital storytelling as a pedagogy we will also be teaching digital natives, in their own language, the art of reflection since as Barrett quotes Schön: “Stories are products of reflection…”

Update: Will Richardson too, is hot on Helen Barrett's trail, and as Will points out, you can substitute weblog for portfolio in much of this writing.