The Divide Between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

Digital Natives are categorized as the first generation to grow up with the new technology.  They have spent their whole lives surrounded by technology.  They use computers, video games, digital music players, video cams and cell phones.  This affects the way they learn tremendously.  Prensky says, "Today‟s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives."  Using all that time looking at social media and watching TV gives less time to study for classes and tests.  They should be spending all that time on school work.  Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine actually says that it is very possible that all this technology they use could be having physical changes to their brains.  On the other hand Digital Immigrants are those who were not born into the generation of technology, but have become interested in the use of technology and  learned how to use it later on in their lives.  The way Prensky talks about the Digital Immigrants is that it doesn't affect the way they learn, but more on the way they teach in classrooms to the younger Digital Natives.  They are using this technology that some can't understand and it's not always to their advantage.

I definitely fall into Digital Native.  I have grown up with technology and have been using just about every form of it; cell phones, computers, TV, video games, tablets, etc.  I can be the first to admit that this has affected the way that I learn.  This first term of college hit me harder than I expected it to.  In high school  I could be listening to music and have the TV on and watch it while doing my homework and studying and manage to pass my class.  Not with the best grade but I passed and that's what mattered to me.  When I came here last year I continued doing my routine and found out the hard way that I need a break from technology to study and do homework the right way so I can actually learn the subject material.  Technology took over my head and it took me a long time to realize that.

With that being said, Native Immigrant teachers had tried a new method of learning to do with technology for engineers to do with a computer software. The results came back and showed  that it actually made it harder for them to learn.  Then they had the idea to take what these Digital Natives know most about and turned the lesson into a video game so they can see and learn it from a different and more familiar way.  Prensky goes on and talks about math and geography and how the way Digital Natives learn and think depends on how it is presented to them.

An idea for how this course could implement a new Digital Native methodology for learning is having a weekly video conference in which every student and professor can see each other. This would make it easier to learn and hear each others ideas.  Being able to actually communicate and see the persons face when giving them a comment or feedback on their paper personally and to their face would help us get the point across more clearly and more effectively.