Digital native vs digital immigrant

by Campus Party Brasil

The terms ‘digital native’ and ‘digital immigrant’, as coined by Marc Prensky in 2001, do not sit comfortably with me. I have heard many speakers and teachers use the terms, usually as a basis for promoting the use of technology in classrooms. Whilst I do not argue that the children of today have only known a world with technology and are often comfortable in using a variety of technologies, I do not believe that those of us born before the digital revolution are any less capable of operating within this developing environment. 

by Aron Stevenson

Prensky states that our students today are native speakers of digital language, yet I would also consider myself a native speaker because I have used the language as it has developed. I have lived in the time when the language was invented so I could also be considered a native speaker. The fact that some people choose not, or have no need, to use the language does not necessarily mean that they are immigrants any more than a person who does not use language related to disciplines that use a specific language are eg music, medicine, law.

Prensky refers to people as having digital immigrant accents and states that schools often feel as though they are staffed by heavily accented foreigners.

by Mario & Amanda

Maybe we could look at this a different way. For many teachers, the language may be somewhat new but, like me, they are living in the time when the language was invented so there should be no accent. What is different for a teacher is the landscape and the routes that can be taken to arrive at varying destinations that have altered. Teachers can, in fact, speak the language but some need assistance in re-routing in order to traverse the landscape in the most efficient way. Teachers need a GPS (or a Go to Person to Steer). A GPS knows your starting point and can suggest possible ways to arrive at your destination with the option of choosing quick, easy and fast routes. The driver (teacher) can select the route that best suits them. Given that the destination often changes when operating in a digital world, some recalibration may be necessary along the way. But whilst you have a GPS the navigation should be less risky. Some teachers may depend on the GPS longer whilst others become familiar with the rout that suits them and can navigate without further assistance (knowing that the GPS is available when needed in the future if, and when, the destination changes again.

Another aspect of the digital divide that is often commented on is the ability of digital natives to multi-task. Can students really learn whilst watching TV or listening to music? Wood et al in their article, Examining the impact of off-task multi-tasking with technology on real-time classroom learning, concluded that while multi-tasking did not seem to affect rote memorization, it might hamper higher-order tasks that involve understanding material and application of the material to novel situations. The results of studies are consistent with both the cognitive bottleneck theory of multi-tasking and provide evidence that attention, especially for complex tasks, can be impaired when multi-tasking is involved.

There may be a digital divide, but I don’t believe it has a great deal to do with when one was born. I agree with

Gerald Haigh who writes in Open University research explodes myth of 'digital native’ that

there’s no evidence of a clear-cut digital divide. Use of technology varies with age, but it does so predictably, over the whole age span. And secondly, although younger people are more likely to be positive about technology, there is evidence that a good attitude to technology, at any age, correlates with good study habits.