Wow, I am a digital immigrant. I love the terms and the article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" by Marc Prensky(2001). I have to admit I did laugh out loud when I read the section on the digital immigrant accent. I do print out documents from the computer to read and edit. Not sure that I have recently called someone to discuss my email but I know that there is a strong possibility that I have been guilty in the past.
That is what is so exciting about studying this course. Hopefully, I can move closer to communicating with the digital natives even though I strongly agree I will never be one.
What I also found interesting is the discussion on how digital natives are used to parallel processing, multi-tasking and receiving information really fast (Prenksy, 2001 p2). My husband and I have two children who are 5 and 8 and they do have access to technology such as an ipad, DS, internet etc but they don't spend an incredible amount of time on them. At this stage in their life they are more interested in dancing and the trampoline. However, my husband recently went down to Sydney to visit his three nephews who range in age from 3 to 16 and was blown away by their multi-tasking skills in relation to technology. They were often on more than one piece of digital equipment at one time, researching, communicating with others and playing games. Certainly impressive. Reading this article by Prensky (2001) on digital natives was like listening to my husband describe the skills of his nephews in Sydney when he returned from his trip.
Maybe that is what lies ahead for our two children and maybe it also what they need to be successful in their future learning but I can't help but ask the question if this article and the next article "Engage me or Enrage Me" also by Prenksy (2005) broad brush our future learners too much. Even though we have a whole generation of digital natives, and I am 100% convinced that integrating technology in the learning of our students is awesome, I can't help thinking that within that group, are learners that use technology but are not that engaged by it. Maybe they would rather be doing something physical?
Hmmmm? I have just considered also, that maybe it depends on my definition of technology? Even the students that prefer outdoors, physical learning are still using the latest in technology and are still multi-tasking and receiving information rapidly from numerous sources catering for their type of learning style. I just remembered my two children have a Wii and spend quite a lot of time using it to dance!
References
Prenksy. (2001). Digital Natives,
Digital Immigrants Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/
Prensky. (2005) Engage me or Enrage
me What Todays Learners Demand pp60
-64 Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf
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