Digital Native Vs Digital Immigrants

Digital Native and Digital Immigrants was a great article, I really enjoyed reading it. This article made me reflect about my own life and learning years. I was born in 1977 society labels me a generation Y baby, I however consider myself as being a generation X baby because my childhood was spent growing up in the 80’s. Today I would consider myself as being Digital Native, but honestly speaking I am still in the learning stage. According to research A digital native is a person who was born after the general implementation of digital technology, and, as a result, has a familiarity with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3’s over their whole lives. A digital immigrant is an individual who was born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it to some extent later. Alternatively, this term can describe people born in the latter 1970s or later, as the Digital Age began at that time; but in most cases the term focuses on people who grew up with 21 Century technology.

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native).

My children where born in the mid nineties a time when technology was beginning to flourish. My children’s knowledge of technology is far more advance then mines, which has forced me to learn more about technology. Technology advancement has changed dramatically in recent years, as a result, it has affected the way teachers teach and the way our students learn. I agree with Marc Prensky, when he says, “Unfortunately no matter how much the Immigrants may wish it, it is highly unlikely that the Digital Native will every go backwards” (Prensky). Technology is here to stay and the traditional ways of learning and teaching is something of the past. In order for today’s teachers to stay in the game, they really have no choice but to learn how to adapt their teaching style.

I also agree with Marc Prensky when he said, “Adapting material to the language of Digital Natives has already been done successfully” (Prensky). That is true but at what cost, the Digital Native generation wants everything fast, and many of them lack patients. Many of them cannot spell correctly thanks to spell check and text lingo. They are quick to use search engines as their first resource, but do not know how to look up books using traditional index cards. Many Digital Natives have never even read a traditional hardcopy book. With that said, I question rather converting traditional teaching style over to a Digital Native language is such a good idea. I do not think so because although 21-century students have been exposed to vast amount of technology, their school performance and testing scores have not improve much over the past few decades.



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 According to a Time, magazines article “In 2009, 69% of Eighth graders scored below proficient in reading. In 2009, 68% of eighth graders scored below proficient in math. The article also say, “Classes are smaller, and per pupil spending has increased, but students performance has not improved. 16:1 students to teacher ration in 2007 compared with 22:1 in 1970. 123% increase in per pupil education spending in the U.S from 1971 to 2006. 0% change in academic performance among 17 years olds from 1971 to 2004 in a national test for reading” (Times Magazine).
Although, I agree with some of Marc Pensky opinions and I fall in the category of the Digital Native; I think that technology should be used as teaching tool not a teacher replacement. Teachers is one the most important factors in students education next to parenting. I personal feel that a lack of parenting is to blame for most students’ shortcomings. We all know that learning beginnings at home and it is parent’s responsibility to see that technology does not hinder their child’s ability to learn or teacher’s ability to reach them.

The new released movie “Waiting for Superman” critics say is a must see movie. “Waiting for superman is a documentary that follows five kids and their parents as they try to escape their neighborhood public schools for higher performing public charter schools. The movie serves up a lot of clarifying statistics about the problems facing education reform” (Times Magazine).

This week in class, we also learned how to create forms using Google Docs. “With Google Docs, you can quickly create a form or survey, email it to your friends, family, or colleagues, and keep track of the answers in one spreadsheet (all for free).There are two ways to create a form in Google Docs: from your Docs list or from a spreadsheet” (docs. Google. COM). I think Google forms is a good learning tools for education.


Work Cited
"Digital Native." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native.

Prensky, Marc. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On The Horizon NCB University Press, Oct. 2001. Web.

"Waiting for Superman TIME Magazine - Search Results." TIME Magazine - Search Results. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .