Session 1 "Digital Natives/ Digital Immigrants

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

            This paper will cover the topic of “Digital Natives and Immigrants” as described in the Cashman Series book “Integrating Technology In A Connected World”, as well as the article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” authored by Marc Prensky, the TED talk video presentation by Sir Ken Robinson, as well as from the Dr. Jean Twenge book “Generation Me.”.  The title of this paper describes the distinction between those born into our current era of technology as “Digital Natives”, and those (who were born earlier) and had to adopt (and adapt to) the new “digital era” of computers, videogames, social networks, and cellphones (to name a few), as “Digital Immigrants”.  The main question of this paper is: How do educators effectively teach “Digital Native” students, in a classroom that is (for the most part), fundamentally grounded in the “Digital Immigrant” era?  Opinions both for and against this issue will be described from my own perspective as well as from the point of view of this field, from “other experts” in the field.

            My son Ronan is almost 10 years old and in the fourth grade.  He would be aptly described as a “Digital Native” because technology has always been a part of his life. He was able to use interactive books when he was as young as 4 years old, and nowadays easily navigates between instant messaging and voice (over) the Xbox, while simultaneously playing games with his friends, logging in on computers at school (and home), to do his homework.  He thinks it’s nothing special to have information at his fingertips. Whereas; if he is doing homework, and has a question about a particular lesson, he just goes to one of our laptops, brings up a search engine, and finds what he needs to know.

During our Elementary Education cohorts “Educational Linguistics” class, we talked about finding out what type of classroom we would each have, and what type of students would make up the class. We were then urged to model our lessons so that they would fit the needs of each student. Based on this theory, my wife and I now allow Ronan his choice to listen to music or have a video going in the background when he does (some, but not all) of his homework, as well as pick a place in the house he feels most comfortable doing his schoolwork (such as the couch or floor); It seems to have done the trick. He is able to breeze through most of his work, and do it correct and legibly.  I bring light to this, because I have to agree with one point that Prensky makes; Kids today “think and process information fundamentally different from their predecessors”.  As Sir Ken Robinson noted in his TED talk “Do schools Kill Creativity?” we have to acknowledge that today’s kids prefer different methods and modes of learning.   How do we incorporate this into our methodology?

            The “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” article champions the idea that today’s educational system is outdated and we (as educators) have to adapt to today’s students:  Author Marc Prensky argues that students of today have changed (radically) and that they are “no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” Prensky then posits that because today’s K-12 students were born into an age where technology is a given, (they) fundamentally think different.  He even quotes Dr. Bruce Perry of Baylor College of Medicine who said “it is very likely that our students’ brains have physical changed: Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures.” This may or may not be true, but we know that their thinking patterns HAVE changed.  Prensky champions that the educators of today (who are described as the “Digital Immigrants”), must change their methodologies of teaching, to the language of “Digital Natives.”

            While I do believe Prensky is correct; we do have to rethink HOW we teach today’s “Digital Native” students, we also have to find the “balance” between the methodology of how educators used to teach (which Prensky calls “Legacy”) and the new approach to teaching (called “Future”).  My opinion is that today’s students are missing something, if they continue to rely on (and we reinforce) the idea of technology as the “end all, be all”. I say this, because I am reminded how the “Legacy” type of teaching has aided me (and how) it can also help today’s student.

            When I was a child, we used to spend the summer on the Blackfeet Reservation (Montana). This is my mother’s homeland.  My great aunt had a full set of encyclopedias.  Because my many cousins would sleep in late, and I was an early riser, I would find I had nothing to do, so I would pull out an edition from the encyclopedia set and start reading whatever topic interested me.  I would go from Alaska to airplanes, from Africa to ambergris … in the same edition!  Because of my exposure to encyclopedias, I developed a lifelong interest in history and geography. 

            Today’s students simply do not have this type of access to a wide variety of subjects. Yes, you can argue that “it’s all there, at their fingertips!”  Even Funk & Wagnall’s put their encyclopedia set online! … But it’s not the same.  Without a tool such as the encyclopedia set, I find it hard to envision a child or teen, with their computer (or whatever personal device they have) “paging” through different subjects, in the same way I did, when I had the physical book(s) in front of me.

            Presnky’s argument is also a call for change, but ironically (for me), a reinforcement that we need to retain “Legacy” content. He illustrates a story of how a manufacturer of CAD software had to change their instruction manual so that it became a game: Less a “dry” tutorial, and more of a “fun” interactive medium.  No doubt this change brought along success for both the company, as well as those who needed to learn the system.  I am troubled, though, by this “candy-coating” approach to learning. 

            In the book “Generation Me”, author Dr. Twenge suggest that people born after 1975 are the “self-esteem” era generation: This generation (champions) individual importance over other concerns, that to “feel good” is not tied to any achievement, and (in the classroom), students are “less likely to recognize the authority of teachers, presuming instead that their perspectives and opinions are on an equal footing with the experts (Twenge 29). In short, they are self-centered, not accountable, and feels equal, if not superior to those in leadership roles.

Twenge further illustrates that (this generation) is often and repeatedly told that they are “special, unique people, whose opinions are important, and who can achieve anything, as long as they follow their dreams (Twenge 118).  What happens when students, who are brought up in a system that accommodates THEIR needs, steps out into the “real world”, where, more often than not, this same student, who is now an adult, must adapt to an environment (such as college and/or workplace) that already has a culture in place?  What happens when they are held accountable to what they did or didn’t do?  How will they react when they are not constantly pampered and praised for simply “being”?

This same generation who Prensky called “Digital Natives”, and Twenge called “Generation Me”, have grown up in an environment where they have easy access, through technology, to almost any information (and entertainment) that they wish for. This same generation has also been repeatedly told to value “who they are, not what they do” (Twenge 148).  These paradigms can probably serve to develop a thesis: Is there a correlation between the social reinforcement of “Generation Me” and the technological culture of the “Digital Native?”

 I will end with a question: How will our education system accommodate the learning behaviors and needs of todays “Generation Me/Digital Natives”?

References
Gunter, Gunter, Shelly “Integrating Technology in A Connected World”. Seventh Edition. Cengage. Boston. 2010. Print

Twenge, Jean M. “Generation Me”. Simon & Schuster. New York. 2006. Print

Prensky, Mark “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” (On the Horizon), University Press, Volume 9, Number 5. 2001. Print.