Digital Immigrants & Digital Natives
According to Prensky, what is the immigrant/native divide and how has it affected the way students learn?
The immigrant/native divide refers to the conflicting between individuals that were born before new technology was created and individuals that were born after new technology. An individual born prior to new technology is called a “Digital Immigrant”, while individuals born after new technology are called “Digital Natives.” Digital Immigrants are people over the age of 30 due to the first smartphone being invented in 1993 by IBM. These individuals did not grow up having immediate access to the internet, playing games on tablets or smartphones, or being able to contact someone on multiple apps at anytime from anywhere in the world in seconds. Anyone under the age of 30 is technically a Digital Native because they were born into this new world of technology. Has anyone ever heard the term iPad kid? An iPad kid refers to a child that constantly plays games on an iPad or smartphone rather than playing with others or outside. I always see videos of people recording adults who always have to be watching something on their phone or playing a game on their phone when they are doing something else like eating or being in a waiting room. They are called iPad kids because they constantly have to be entertained by something else due to consistently entertaining themselves with technology instead of going outside as a child. iPad kids definitely fall under the term Digital Natives. The digital immigrant/native divide has impacted the way students learn due to teachers not wanting to change their ways of teaching and students not being able to adopt the old ways of teaching. Prensky mentioned the creation of an extremely successful software video game called Monkey Wrench that was made to help engineers learn and use the new software. Monkey Wrench is a good example of how Digital Natives have different learning styles and have the motivation to learn depending on how it is applied. If teachers would work with their students to create a learning style that worked for them, students and teachers success rates would increase. When teachers only want to do things their way, it results in the majority of the class having learning difficulties. The solution is for teachers to learn the new ways of the Digital Natives instead of trying to continue living in the past.
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| iPad Kid |
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| iPad Adult |
Draw from your creativity as you come up with one idea for how this course could implement a new digital native methodology for learning?
I think it would be fun to have an online game where students work together to create a social media page or “The best online resume”. It does not have to be those two specific things but those are just some ideas that might be fun. Students would be able to connect online and use the software at the same time to complete this creation. A few classmates would pair up together to work on their creation and share it with the other students after. Another activity I think would be fun is to have an assignment where students would be able to use software to grade their classmates assignment. Something I really admire about my Communicating Online class is that we get to create these blog posts instead of just posting a regular discussion post. Prior to taking this class, discussions were my least favorite assignments to do and now they are my favorite. My motivation to complete these discussions is much higher than in any of my other classes, probably due to me being a Digital Native. This is proof that creating new fun ways to learn things through technology benefits students.
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