Digital natives - who are they?
“Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” (Prensky 2001)
The students the system was designed to teach are known as Digital Immigrants. Digital immigrants are the people who were not born into the digital world, but at some point began to embrace technology as part of their lives. They may not know all there is, but they have adapted to this new world. As Prensky describes, “As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their “accent,” that is, their foot in the past.” (Prensky
2001) This accent can be seen in many different ways. For example, a digital immigrant may go to the library rather than search the web. Or they may print out a computer document in order to edit it rather than editing it on the screen.
Digital Natives, on the other hand, speak digital fluently. They have spent their entire lives being surrounded by and using digital technology. Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, digital music players, and video cams and other tools and toys of the digital age are all integral parts of their lives. (Prensky 2001)
According to Prensky, “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” (Prensky 2001)
To explore more about this struggle, follow this link to Marc Prensky’s article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.
Watch this video for some amazing facts about Digital Natives:
The students the system was designed to teach are known as Digital Immigrants. Digital immigrants are the people who were not born into the digital world, but at some point began to embrace technology as part of their lives. They may not know all there is, but they have adapted to this new world. As Prensky describes, “As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their “accent,” that is, their foot in the past.” (Prensky
2001) This accent can be seen in many different ways. For example, a digital immigrant may go to the library rather than search the web. Or they may print out a computer document in order to edit it rather than editing it on the screen.
Digital Natives, on the other hand, speak digital fluently. They have spent their entire lives being surrounded by and using digital technology. Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, digital music players, and video cams and other tools and toys of the digital age are all integral parts of their lives. (Prensky 2001)
According to Prensky, “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” (Prensky 2001)
To explore more about this struggle, follow this link to Marc Prensky’s article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.
Watch this video for some amazing facts about Digital Natives:
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