Transcript Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

Digital Natives
vs. Digital
Immigrants
By: Kalin Gernand,
Alisha Breakfield,
Martina Huntley,
and Daniela Arnao
Digital Native and Digital Immigrant
Instructors
In the article, “Digital Natives, Digital
Immigrants,” Marc Prensky asserts that
“the single biggest problem facing
education today is that our Digital
Immigrant instructors…are struggling to
teach a population that speaks an entirely
new language.” Prensky’s focus is
directed toward instructors integrating
technology into the classroom that is
reflective of the level of use students
experience outside of the classroom.
Technology and Multiple Intelligences
• In this article fourth-grade teacher, Bette Savini, talks
about ways to use technology to develop each students’
MI.
•She used a computer game called The Voyage of the
Mimi to help her students learn Science and Math.
•The many different ways the game conveyed
information helped each student learn the information.
•Thoughtful use of technology can help students learn
in different ways and help develop the MI.
•One student said “I like that it’s not how smart I
am, but how many ways I am smart!”
• Children have all
intelligences but most
favor one or two over the
others.
• The game has many
different technology
components that appeal to
students and their
different prominent
intelligences.
• For example, for the
bodily-kinesthetic students
the game lets you build
boats, go on hikes, and
some hands-on science
opportunities.
Continued…
Digital Native Learners
Digital Immigrant Teachers
Prefer receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia
sources.
Prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited
sources.
Prefer parallel processing and multitasking.
Prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Prefer processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds and video.
Prefer random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Prefer to provide information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with many others.
Prefer students to work independently rather than network and
interact.
Prefer to learn “just-in-time.”
Prefer to teach “just-in-case” (it’s on the exam).
Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards.
Prefer deferred gratification and deferred rewards.
Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly useful and fun.
Prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and standardized tests.
Skill Level and
Knowledge
• Almost none know how to
program or even code text
with Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML).
• Only a handful come to
college with a sense of
how the Internet
fundamentally differs from
the other major media
platforms in daily life
Generational Talk Troubling
• Talk of a "digital generation" or people who
are "born digital" willfully ignores the needs
and perspectives of those young people who
are not socially or financially privileged.
• It presumes a level playing field and equal
access to time, knowledge, skills, and
technologies.
Catering to Assumptions
• Once we assume that all young people love
certain forms of interaction and hate others, we
forge policies and design systems and devices
that match those presumptions.
• By focusing on wealthy, white, educated people,
as journalists and pop-trend analysts tend to do,
we miss out on the whole truth.
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REDUCED WASTE will lead to lower costs.
INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
LESS WORKFORCE
HIGHER PROFITS due to the increased efficiency
A HIGHER INCOME can be yours if your business is
making more profit.
• ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS such as the use of email, computer networks and mobile phones allow
information to be sent/received instantly.
• MORE COMPETITIVE
Pros of Technology
Cons of Technology
• THE MANAGEMENT of new technology can be extremely difficult
• NEW SKILLS may be needed to operate the new technology and so
you will have to re-train your employees.
• MAINTENANCE of the technology will be required to keep it efficient.
• COSTS are something that will be reduced if integrated properly.
• TIME can be lost if you have to reorganize the workplace to set up the
new technology.
STOP MAKING EXCUSES!
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Recognize that around 65% – 85% of students and parents DO HAVE ACCESS to computers and the
Internet and acknowledge that TECHNOLOGY IS NOT JUST A FAD.
Things are changing at an ever increasing rate and will continue to do so in the lives of today's
children, so you need to be a role model for LIFE-LONG LEARNING AND FLEXIBLE THINKING or you
risk becoming irrelevant.
Consider where you'd be today if most people in the 20th Century refused to accept the
automobile and kept using horse-drawn buggies just because a car seemed unnatural and
complicated?
If you worked in business or industry, you would NOT HAVE THE OPTION TO REFUSE to use new
programs instituted by your employer, so why should teachers think they are exempt?
Would you want to go to a doctor or surgeon who refused to use new cutting-edge innovations?
Don't keep bragging about your unwillingness to try new technology because YOU KNOW WHAT
HAPPENED OVER 65 MILLION YEARS AGO TO DINOSAURS WHO COULDN'T ADAPT!
Thank your lucky stars that according to modern research in neuroscience, your BRAIN DOES NOT
STOP making new connections when you are six years old!
Remember that you are still the teacher, and even though you may not be as adept at computers as
some of your students, you are the expert in your content. You only have to learn enough tech
tricks to engage your students' attention. Then they'll be motivated to learn subject content from
you, and they can teach you the tech tools!
According to Jack Lemmon, "FAILURE SELDOM STOPS YOU. WHAT STOPS YOU IS FEAR OF FAILURE."
You CAN LEARN to use these tools, but the longer you ignore them, the more skills and knowledge
you will have to catch up with – so don’t waste any more time ignoring them – START LEARNING!
Keys to Integration for Instructors
• Learn to communicate in the language and
style of their students
• Develop Web-based games and activities
related to classroom curriculum
• Incorporate digital and technological content
with traditional curriculum
• Employ the assistance of media specialists
• Create instructor groups that consist of
natives and immigrants for collaboration
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Sources
Anderson, Mary Alice. “Start the Year Right with Digitally Native Teachers.
MultiMedia & Internet@/Schools Vol 12 Issue 5, Sep/Oct 2005
Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Computers as mindtools for schools: Engaging critical
thinking. Columbus, OH: Prentice-Hall.
Oblinger, Diana. (2006, May). “Simulations, Games, and Learning.” Retrieved
September 14, 2009, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3004.pdf.
Prensky, Marc. “Digital natives, Digital Immigrants.” On the Horizon Vol. 9, Oct.
2001.
Prensky, M. (2001). “Do They Really Think Differently?”. In On the Horizon,
December 2001, 9 (6)NCB University Press.
Savini, B. (1995). Technology and multiple intelligences. Kamehameha Journal of
Education, 7-13.
Vaidhyanathan, Siva (2008). Generational Myth. Chronicle of Higher Education, 55,
B7.