The idea is simple: technology has changed the way people think, work, and learn. And if technology has changed the way people learn, maybe the next step is for it to change the way teachers teach.
Digital Natives v. Digital Immigrants
The analogy is straightforward enough. Humanity now lives in a country (a world, really) that is digital. It is a world furnished and landscaped with technology.
People who were born into this technological world have never known life without a keyboard. They don't remember telephones that had to be attached to the wall by a cord. They've never waited for their pictures to be "developed" and they buy their music one song at a time over the Internet.
They know what "OMG 2bad4U" and "ROFL" mean without even thinking about it. If you ask them for their address, they give you something with an "@" symbol in it, or they give you the address to their Facebook page. The list goes on. And it's not that they're at home with these things because they've adapted to them. They haven't adapted; it's never been different in their lives. Technology is natural to them. They are digital natives.
Then there are people who grew up with a pen or pencil but learned to use a keyboard. Perhaps they even like the keyboard better. They might own a digital camera and use it well. Some of them cope with the technology that surrounds them. Others can provide you with a list of technology skills they feel competent with (most of which they learned for work). They can email and surf the web. They use the latest version of Word. They have a Blackberry. They use PowerPoint on the job. With many of these people, there's a good chance that they are more proficient in the technologies they use than most digital natives.
But they haven't scanned their old family photos and put them on a CD yet so that they can look at them on their big screen TV. In fact, they like holding that old dusty photo album. And they still pay money to have USA Today or the NY Times delivered to their door step in a paper form, even though both are available online (and USA Today is free there). These people have moved into a digital world from somewhere else. They are digital immigrants. And no matter how much technology they learn to use, they will always be different from digital natives. Naturalized digital citizens? Maybe, but still immigrants.
People who are unfamiliar with technology despite living and/or working in a technological world are variously referred to as digital dinosaurs, digital refugees, and digital aliens.
Marc Prensky's Work
Marc Prensky is generally credited with coining the term "digital native." The term flowed out of his work on digital game-based learning (GBL). Prensky has been described as a "futurist, visionary, and inventor in the critical areas of education and learning." He is the founder and CEO of a company called Games to Train. He holds graduate degrees from both Harvard and Yale.
Prensky's 2001 work, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants looks at the difference in learning styles between immigrants and natives as he perceived them at the time. According to Prensky, "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."
How? According to Prensky, digital natives look for more interactive forms of learning than digital immigrants are used to. And digital natives do not use reflection (mental contemplation) as a learning tool the way digital immigrants do.
Digital Controversy
Is there research to support Prensky's position on the differences between digital natives and digital immigrants? Not a lot - not yet, at least. And the education community seems to be divided on whether or not to accept the new digital generational divide. If digital natives really do have different learning styles, is that something that should be accepted or attacked and changed? The verdict is still out.
Greg Cruey - Greg Cruey is an educator and journalist. He works as an educational interventionist specializing in a small, rural school in Central ...
Join the Conversation