The discussion around digital natives and digital immigrants is certainly one that has gotten a lot of buzz and certainly sold many books for Prensky and others in his camp. Although I do agree that the students we serve in classrooms today have had access to digital technology since birth, I don't believe it doesn't prepare them to be better multi-taskers or more prepared to work with technology.
An Educational Physchology Professor, Daniel Willingham at University of Virginia, shared a very valuable explanation of multitasking for a cognitive scientist point of view.
I do believe that students are more comfortable "playing" with technology. Consider that you've just purchased a new electronic device and wanted to start figuring this darn thing out. I'd argue, more "digital immigrants" will find the manual and start reading. On the other hand, "digital natives" open the packaging and start pressing buttons. They start working on something until they figure it out. This is off course in "informal" learning settings. In "formal" learning settings, I'd argue that students rely on the teacher to provide them with the steps to work with technology.
We like to think of conventional wisdom is that these students are younger and in that respect more capable of working with technology. But you can not through away the years of research on learning and cognition. If something is unfamiliar to students, lets say a blog, students will need some guidance to learn how this thing works.
For those of you that are PBS watchers, Frontline produced a piece titled Digital Nation. Digital Nation was on PBS on February 2, 2010. If you have 90 minutes or more, it is an interesting and, I believe, balanced look at how technology is changing our world. Listed below are two opposing viewpoints that I thought were interesting to chew over.
Henry Jenkins, professor at University of Southern California, advocates the use of technology in schools and asserts that schools must adapt and accommodate to changing students. You'll also Prensky highlighted frequently in the video.
Mark Bauerlein, professor at Emory University and the author of The Dumbest Generation, argues that technology is working against the critical thinking skills that students have. Tempering the convenience technology has with the skills students need.
Having a middle school student who carries a cell phone with texting abilities and knows how to use facebook and youtube, I am VERY aware that her ability to multi-task is limited. It's obvious that homework AND computer/screen/texting both get less quality attention than if she is focusing on one of them at a time. As I see it, she actually is much more efficient and it is a richer experience if she focuses on one and then another. Too bad I can't get her to really believe that, yet!
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