The other day, my two year old daughter was riding in the car with my mother. The little one asked to hear “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter. My mother then spent the next 10 minutes explaining that she didn’t have an iPod and could only listen to the music that the radio station played. The two-year-old so did not buy it. When I first heard this story, I laughed. Then I gave it some thought. My kids are growing up in a time of nearly unlimited access to information. I have heard this in countless presentations and read it in more than a few articles, but it took a toddler to finally beat it into my head. …wow, not to go off on a tangent, but “Bad Day” just came on my iPod (it is on shuffle and there are like 12,000 songs on it) …weird.
I guess I should come up with a point to this posting. I was fortunate enough to hear Marc Prensky speak a year or so ago. The exchange between my mom and daughter echoed his statement that digital natives are from the “Random Access Generation.” I highly recommend checking out his writings on this and more at http://www.marcprensky.com/.
Darren is a sarcastic, odd, bald man with a very dry sense of humor. He originally hails from Albany, N.Y., but claims Charleston, S.C. as his hometown.He joined the Air Force soon after graduating high school. This decision was made because a) working as a busboy wasn’t quite cutting it, and b) he had zero desire to ever attend college. While in the Air Force, he traveled the world as a Combat Cameraman, documenting both natural and man made disasters in places such as Thailand, Namibia, Armenia, Germany, Panama, Italy, Croatia, Japan, Singapore, and probably more than a few places that have changed names since you began reading this bio. There are many stories about his travels locked away in a vault somewhere and it is said that Samuel Adams holds the key.
While in the Air Force, he was given the opportunity to attend a year-long Video Journalism program at Syracuse University. Much to his amazement, he found that higher education didn’t suck at all. Having been bitten by the education bug, he completed his BS and MA in education and training from Southern Illinois University and Webster University respectively. He then completed his doctorate in instructional technology and distance education form Nova Southeastern University.
Darren currently works as an Instructional Designer at The University of Texas at Dallas and enjoys spending time with his wife, children, dogs and fish. His hobbies include weight training, watching the Texas Rangers (yes, really), and trying to appear smarter than he really is.