Digital Natives/Immigrants Post - Rebecca Shook

Digital Natives/Immigrants Post

by Rebecca Shook

            In the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Prensky explains that the educational system of today is no longer working in teaching our children, due to the fact that their brains have changed drastically because of the amount of digital technology surrounding them (Prensky, 2001). Prensky writes, “Our students today are all ‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games, and the internet” (2001, p. 1).  Prensky goes on to compare the so called “digital natives” to the learners of yesterday, whom he refers to as digital immigrants.  “As digital immigrants learn- like all immigrants, some better than others- to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their ‘accent,’ that is, their foot in the past” (Prensky, 2001, p. 2).  Digital natives have grown up in a completely different world and because of that, have completely different brains (Prensky, 2001).   It is no wonder that the educational system that was designed to teach to a completely different type of brain is failing our country.

            I consider myself a digital native in that I grew up with digital technology incorporated in to my every day life and am surrounded by many forms of digital technology today.  I am an avid video game player, internet browser, and smart phone user.  I prefer to do most of my communicating with people over email and text as opposed to making phone calls.  Prensky writes, “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite” (2001, p. 2).  I am used to having information at my fingertips and I feel most comfortable when I can bounce around between different websites, working in many directions at once.

            Although I feel like I am much more a digital native than a digital immigrant, I would not consider the schools I attended to be technologically advanced in any way.  I remember having a computer lab in middle school that entire classrooms would use maybe once or twice a week.  In high school the computer lab was used for classrooms when needed and we also had teachers who would present using power-point presentations.  Aside from my schooling, all of my interactions with digital technology occurred in my home or in the summers, when I would choose to attend computer camps.  I also don’t remember much technology in college.  My professors used much of the same techniques as my high school teachers:  a lot of direct teaching and power-point slides.  Much like the children of today, I don’t remember being very interested in lectures by my professors and feel that I didn’t retain much information. 

            The articles presented to us in class have enlightened me to one of the problems of our educational system today.  I have always believed that using technology in the classroom is a great way to help make things more interesting and entertaining for students.  Incorporating computers in research and inquiry for science classes gives students a break from text books and opens avenues for more questions and research to arise.  Incorporating music and video games, along with various gadgets into every day classroom activities, really help the digital natives learn in ways they are best suited. 

References

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon (Vol. 9, No. 5).