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.

• 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!”

Technology and Multiple Intelligences

Continued…• 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.

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.

Pros of Technology

• 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 e-mail,

computer networks and mobile phones allow information to be sent/received instantly.

• MORE COMPETITIVE

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!• 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

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.

What will you do to help your students?