Digital Native of Digital Immigrant?

The following ideas come from a commentator on technology in education called Marc Prensky who created a games based learning company called Games2train and was formally a teacher himself.

A few of Prensky's articles are part of our readings for week 1 including the article in which the below concept emerged (Prensky 2001a), and another where Prensky claims that if we don't engage children, we will enrage them Prensky 2005.

 Prensky 2001b expands on the ideas from Prensky 2001a by discussing why he believes digital natives thinking processes have developed slightly differently to digital immigrants due to the increased digital contact experienced by digital natives.

Digital Natives are;

Born into a world where the use of technology is normal and expected and are very good at adapting to new technologies. They find it very difficult to 'slow down' for traditional forms of learning and even think differently to older generations. Linear thinking is found to be boring and often results in students 'tuning out'. These same students, if engaged, excel at multitasking, representational comprehension, mind mapping, inductive reasoning and other skills in which modern digital medias  regularly utilise (Prensky 2001b). 

Digital Immigrants;      

Started life before the technological boom and have had to adapt and relearn behaviours to fit into a technological world. Understanding new technologies does not come naturally. They where taught to think linearly by cause and effect

Closing Comments:

I personally agree with this theory to some existent but mostly from the middle to upper classes of society. There are still young people growing up today that have a basic understanding and use of ICT but have a narrower use or ability to develop ICT adaptability skills due to economic reasons or lack of parent involvement reducing home exposure and the older equipment or lack of program's available in some schools. This divide has reduced and is still reducing due to lower prices but it has not vanished completely.  

References

Prensky, M (2005). Engage us or Enrage us. EDUCATE Review September /October 2005. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf 

Prensky, M (2001a). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. From On the Horizons MCB University Press Vol. 9, No. 5, October 200. Retrieved http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Prensky, M (2001b). Digital Natives, Digital Iimigrants, Part II: Do they Really Think Differently? From On the Horizons MCB University Press Vol. 9, No. 6, October 200. Retrieved http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf