Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

 Digital Native, Digital Immigrants

If you are apart of the Digital Native generation, then reading Prensky's research probably made you feel very validated. I know it did for me. I've talked about how I grew up in the age of technology previously, but I think it is interesting to elaborate more on the divide between my generation and the Digital Immigrants a bit more. Prensky clearly states that the divide is found in the struggle the Digital Immigrants face in teaching a generation that speaks an entirely different language. This goes beyond the "lols" and "omgs." Digital Natives quite frankly learn in entirely different manners.  Reading long text or doing extensive research doesn't seem necessary when the answer is a Google Search away. Digital Natives also have been raised in an online world that has physically altered our attention spans. Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (the year when the mobile revolution surged) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to eight seconds. Think about it- Prensky acknowledged the wide spread access of information kids can get today. But it's more than that, not only can we access a lot of information, we access it in large quantities and at fast speeds. 

Think about when you scroll through Instagram or TikTok. You can sift through hundred of videos, pictures, and articles in the span of an hour. If something doesn't interest you, you scroll until you find something that does. The content that we ARE exposed to isn't even longer than a couple minutes. Our brains have been trained to stop paying attention or showing interest after a short amount of time. This contributes to the divide Prensky was talking about. Digital Immigrants don't know how to hold our attention. Old study habits or teaching strategies simply are not effective on this new generation. The brains of Digital Natives might not even be wired to do simple things such as read long chapters of a textbook. This alone drastically affects the educations and learning of Digital Natives. However, it is no one's fault unless we fail to adapt.

I think its important as technology advances, and more kids are raised as Digital Natives, for the way curriculum is taught to adapt. For this course for an instance, a large part of our reading so far has been how people perceive and interact online. I think it would be fun to create mock social media accounts and post and do our discussions through those. It imitates the real ways people interact online, and it contributes to the shorter and more efficient way of spreading information- perfect for Digital Natives.