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Digital Nature, Digital Nurture Libraries, learning and the digital native

Michael Robinson

Institute Librarian

The Hong Kong Institute of Education

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This Is Hong Kong,

Miroslav Sasek

First published,

1965

Reissued, 2007

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Digital Native

IPod Nano Mobile Phone Laptop MSN Yahoo Google Digital Camera

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Digital Natives

“the first generations to grow up with…new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other tools and toys of the digital age…Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives.”

(Prensky, 2001)

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Digital Brother

IPod (Nano) PS2 PSP Mobile Phone Desktop PC Yahoo MSN Google

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Digital Immigrant

Desktop Laptop Printer Scanner Mobile Ipod No idea…

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Immediacy of response Random, non-linear information Image preferred to text Technology adaptive and experimental Multi-tasking Collaborative Problem solving & task oriented

Digital Native Characteristics

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Socio-economic issues. Libraries never serve one constituency only Academic staff are digital immigrants

Digital Stereotypes

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OCLC Survey – ‘College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources’ (2005)

89% of college student sample commenced a search for information with a search engine

Search engine of choice is Google 2% of the students sampled listed the Library

website.

The Digital Student

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53% of the sample believed that information obtained via search engines was as trustworthy as information obtained from a library

16% of the sample felt that the library was less trustworthy as a source of information

Internet vs Library Information

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“…the indisputable fact…that information and content on the open Web is far easier and more convenient to find and access than are information and content in physical or virtual libraries. The information consumer types a term into a search box, clicks a button and sees results immediately. The information consumer is satisfied.”

OCLC Environment Scan: Pattern Recognition, 2003

Internet vs Library Information

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Depth of information sources Quality of information resources Google by simplifying the search is also

simplifying the expectation Superficiality of result and its analysis Technology literate, information illiterate

Traditional Library Response

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Google Librarian

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The library is everywhere, meaning essentially that the library “…is available at the point of need, visible on a wide range of devices, and integrated with services from beyond the library, such as portals, virtual learning environments…”

Library 2.0

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The library has no barriers: meaning that the resources which a library holds should be more widely exposed via the Web, “…visible to search engines such as Google, and harvestable into new applications and services built by the library and by third parties…”

Library 2.0

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The library invites participation: encouraging and enabling library users to participate and contribute to understanding of resources so that ultimately everyone benefits.

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Library 2.0

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The library uses flexible best-of-breed systems: to achieve this situation requires new and different relationships with technology partners, relying less on proprietary systems and more on open, compatible and interoperable standards and modules.

Library 2.0

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1.68 million broadband internet users. 67% of households with an internet

connection Mobile phone ownership 127% of

population Hong Kong the heaviest user of ICQ

Hong Kong

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