The Middle

This saying has been around for a long time and applies directly to a debate about generational differences between today's youth and the adults who teach them.  Marc Prensky views today's "digital natives" (younger generation that has grown up with technology) as a completely different animal than "digital immigrants" (older people who have adopted the culture of technology) and goes so far as to say that their brain structure has changed which directly influences the way they think, process information, and learn.  He requires teachers to step up and rethink their teaching styles in ways that will resonate with this new generation of digital natives.  However, Prensky's arguments are met with strong disagreement by Jamie McKenzie who calls him out on the basis that his claims are completely unsubstantiated by research, going so far as to claim that Prensky even misused the anecdotal “evidence” that he presents to support his beliefs.

Given these two opposing views, I refer back to the quote above and say that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  Extremes are rarely a good thing, and for Prensky to call for a complete overhaul in teaching to adapt to the culture of digital natives is excessive.  For McKenzie to discount all of Prensky's ideas in one fell swoop is equally excessive.  I agree with some of Prensky's ideas about the learners of today being drastically different from previous generations, however, I think he took an extremist and oversimplified point of view in his article.  He makes some valid points - it is our obligation as educators to constantly find creative ways to engage and teach our students, often having to move out of our personal comfort zones to meet them where they're at - but I strongly disagree that video games are the one size fits all solution to this challenge.
Prensky presents his ideas as an extremist, backed with little empirical evidence, but McKenzie, his antagonist, does the same.  In his vehement rebuttal to Prensky's claims, McKenzie comes across as hostile and angry, and while many of his points are valid, he doesn't offer any alternative solutions to the issues at hand; he's seeking only to attack Prenksy and that destructive (as opposed to constructive) approach doesn't make him any more attractive than the claims he seeks to dispel.

Overall, today's learner has changed - their expectations of what school should be and what it takes to engage them is different than in the past due to cultural shift.  Whether we call that a culture of digital natives or not is irrelevant.  Too much focus is wasted on labels and groupings - people are different, students are different, whether that be based on birth year, identified generation, gender, race, socioeconomic status, etc. We, as educators, need to work to meet students where they're at; we have an obligation to provide the best, most relevant education we can to prepare them for their futures.  

References: 
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants – Part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6). Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

McKenzie, J. (2007). Digital nativism: Digital delusions and digital deprivation. From Now On, 17(2). Retrieved from http://fno.org/nov07/nativism.html

Reeves, T.C. (2008). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Online discussion presentation to Instructional Technology Forum from January 22-25, 2008 at http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf