Digital Native??? are they really?
The Term Digital native has been broadly used to describe people who through continous immersion in technology are neurologically different to those who have not had the same degree of exposure. For a considerable amount of time this was theory and subject to much skeptacism, however the body of research into neuroscience has provided a huge amount of supporting evidence. (See the work of Dr Gary Small in his book iBrain, Nicholas Carr in the Shallows, Understanding the digital generation by Ian Jukes and Lee Crockett and so on). Their brains are wired differently to the generations who did not have the same degree of exposure.
Similarly, your brain will adapt and change throughout your life. Age is not a barrier to learning and experience cause the brain to adapt.
In general the charactoristics we see for this digital generation are that they are:
- Highly visual and have a preference for multi media
- information, technology and media savvy
- multitasking (rapid task switching) and often lack patience, wanting immediate access, feedback and rewards
- communicators and collaborators
- producers, remixers and creators
- value transparency and fairness
- adaptive and like customising their environment to suit themselves
In the classroom, many people expect that the students walking into their learning environment are able, almost by instinct and dint of being a digital native, to use software and technology instantly with a degree of competence. They are suprized by the lack of skills that these “Digital natives” possess.
So its probably worth expanding the “technology savvy” component of the charactoristics of the 21st century learners.
source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/xbox360_games_console.jpg
They are technology savvy, but technology is not just computers and software, computers and software are elements of technology. Technology surrounds us and them, its the television, media recorders, players, games consoles, gps, cell phones, remote controls, robots and so much more that surround us. Our digital natives can manipulate and use these technologies, they are adept at using technology and can quickly pick up the underlying concepts and processes within these.
BUT…. it is dependent on what they are exposed to.. The general exposure to and immersion in technologies has led to the neurological changes we see in the digital generation, but their competence or lack of it competence in a particular tool is dependent on their experiences with it.
So when our brand new students walk into the classroom at the start of the year, we must put aside the expectation/assumption that they come with a skill set on how to use computers and software. Rather, we should consider them as sponges that will quickly absorb the skills to a basic level but need direction, support and critique to reach their potential.
2 Comments Already
February 9, 2011 at 2:54 pm Permalink
Thanks for a good post. It matches my own experiences to some extent. However, I’d be tempted to go a little further – I have found that young people are often CONSUMERS of technology and not overly concerned with the process of producing material. Many often simply rely on using the “undo button” in its many forms or reloading a page when results aren’t quite what they wanted – electronic trial and error without the learning. Yes, they are digital natives in the sense that they are familiar with technology and comfortable with it. This is not the same as saying that they have an innate understanding of it. A simple “rule of thumb” indicator I found useful is to observe their search skills on the internet. Those that were limited to “simple” searches rather than more complex (but more efficient ones) were often not skilled technology users.
Expecting all young people to have ICT skills simply because they are “digital natives” is like expecting us all to be Master Chefs because we all eat.
February 19, 2011 at 12:24 pm Permalink
I may agree with both from one perspective that digital natives are Consumers of the technology and we can’t expect them to be experts just because they were born with mouse in hand,but I have a different opinion.
Young people are using the technology and building experience in using it , so this is easier to be oriented toward being a “creators” than other people who are hardly accepting it in life.
“Digital natives” are smart,creative, competent and efficient in finding solutions, able to communicate with others in different media and can easily switch from text,to voice to visual communication. They are fast and they only allow seconds to make a decision.
Such skills are not complete to practice creating sophisticated technology but still exists and can be easily oriented toward creating the technology.It doesn’t have to be a complicated one, but creating knowledge and learning material for instance to show their competencies to peers can be incentive for them to do so.
After all, creating more complex technology by non IT professional or engineering degree holders is also common thing. Where this is found in life-long learners, who are seeking knowledge in areas of their interest and not always have to be with credentials.
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