From blog of proximal development:
Our role as educators, to paraphrase Lessig, is to ensure that the past, the linear, visual mode of thinking give rise to but does not limit the creativity and the energy of emerging technologies. This can happen only if we recognize that we cannot impose the old upon the new just as we cannot create the new in a vacuum. It is our job to ensure that our students acquire the skills necessary to intelligently share their views, whether it’s in a wiki, an every-day conversation, or a traditional five-paragraph essay. We need to ensure, as Prensky suggests, that they learn both the “legacy” and “future” content. To do that, we need to acquire the skills of digital pioneers, we need to “remix and feed forward.”
…We are pioneers. We bring the experience with us and we are constantly discovering new territories and adopting to them with efficiency and speed. We “Filter, repurpose, remix, feed forward” to use Stephen [Downes’] words again. We might be newcomers according to Prensky but we come with the tools we need to filter the old, remix with the new, and give our students the skills they need to participate and not just “surf.”