Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

                                             

• According to Prensky, what is the immigrant/native divide and how has it affected the way students learn? 

The “new” students of today are considered to be Digital Natives. In today's day in age technology is in bedded in how students live their day to day lives. Many kids are born with a tablet in their hand. They know how to use the internet before they know how to ride a bike. Having a cell phone, gaming device, computer, etc. is the only way they know how to really get by in the world. The Digital Immigrant on the other hand, is someone of the older generation who adopts the digital world. They have to relearn everything and implement this new skill into their lives. Because the Digital Immigrants are the teachers of the Digital Natives it can be very hard for some students to learn. Prensky states, "Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now. But that assumption is no longer valid. Today's learners are different." The Natives are a much faster paced generation, therefore the pen and paper, lengthy lectures, and reading out of a textbook is not the way to teach them. Finding ways to incorporate technology into learning is crucial for these new learners to be successful. I have included a link below to an article that I found very interesting regarding how technology impacts learning.

How Technology Impacts Learning Experience And Training Development (elearningindustry.com)

 

• According to Prensky, what category do you fall into and how has this affected your learning?

I would be considered a Digital Native. I have to confess that I am always using some sort of technology. As I grew up technology was always around me. Watching TV, playing video games on the computer, play station, Xbox, and the Wii was how I grew up. I found myself having more knowledge on technology than my grandparents and parents. They always ask me to help them fix or set up something because they are "technologically challenged" as they would say. I can't say that being a Digital Native negatively impacted my learning as most of my teachers found ways to incorporate it into lessons. For example, Kahoot was something we often did. Or they would find online simulations that corelated to the information we were learning. There was only one teacher who really struggled with technology and taught "old school." I personally enjoyed it as the class was much more hands on, but we would always fall behind in curriculum as everything took so much longer. Overall, having the technology has been very beneficial and being able to grow up and use it is something I am grateful for.