Digital Natives, Digital Inmigrants

by Marc Prensky

New students N – Gen D – Gen

Digital Natives

“Native Speakers” of the digital language of computer, video games and the Internet.

Generations that grow up with new technology

Computers Video games Video cams

Digital Music players Cell phonesComputer games Email The Internet

Tools of the digital age

Today´s students are not longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Digital technology Big discontinuity

Singularity

Radical changes

Digital Inmigrants

People who were not born into the digital world, but who are fascinated by it and who have adopted some /

most aspects the new technology.

A distinction their “accent”

They always retain their “digital inmigrant accent” because they are learning a new language later in life which goes into a different part of

the brain.

Examples

• Digital Natives• Turn to the Internet for

information in the first place

• A program teaches them how to use it by using it

• Read emails on the screen

• Edit documents on the screen

• Send people a URL

• Digital immigrants• Turn to the Internet in

the second place• Read the manual for a

program• Print their emails or

have it print• Print documents edit

them in them• Take people physically

to see together an interesting website

Problem in educaction

Digital immigrant instructors, who speak the outdated language of the pre- digital age, are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely ew language.

Digital Natives Think and process information differently from their predecessors

Their thinking patterns ( and probably their brains ) have changed

Digital Natives

- Receive information really fast- Prefer graphics before texts- Function best when networked- Prefer games to “serious” work- Have little patience for lectures, step-by-step logic- Have a library on their laptops- Used to the instantaneity of hypertext- Use instant messaging

Digital Inmigrants:

tend to have little appreciation for these new skills.

To confront this issue:

It is necessary to reconsider

Methodology and Content In learning

Methodology

Today´s teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students

Content Two kinds “Legacy” content

“Future” content

“Legacy” content

The “traditional” curriculum: reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking

“Future” content = Digital / technological contentSoftware, hardware, robotics, genomics,

etc PLUS

ethics, politics, sociology, languages, etc

The result:

“learning new stuff”

and

“learning new ways to do with old

stuff”

Effortisneeded

Adapt materials to the language of Digital Natives

Invent Digital Native methodologies for all subjects, at all levels