Digital Natives? Digital Immigrants?
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky has to be one of the most commented on concepts in recent times. I have a few issues I wish to rise regarding this piece of writing, particularly in light of how it is being used throughout the world today. 
Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Marc begins with this statement, but is it true? Have our students really changed that significantly? What is Marc basing that statement on, there is no reference to research carried out or other reading he has gleaned that piece of information from.
Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.
What a sweeping generalisation, who are they, and by ‘they’ is it really all of them, most of them, those that ‘matter’, who matters anyway, how do you measure that? So many questions.
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).
Where have these figure come from? Is a simple question of multiplying up from hours in the day, who is this based on?
Says Dr. Bruce D. Berry of
Baylor
College of Medicine.
Who is Doctor Bruce? What is he a doctor of? What research is he basing his statement on? I quick Google search for the man in question simply refers to Marc’s other work. It was written six years ago, I guess we’ve all moved on since then.
On page 2 of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Marc talks about digital language and how us ‘immigrants’ have to learn ‘digital’ like a second language…. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain. Does it? What scientists? Is learning to work an ipod really the same as learning a second language? Perhaps Marc is taking his analogue a little too far?
Digital Immigrants don’t believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can’t.
Is this statement really true? I know the second part is (for me anyway) but that doesn’t mean the first part is. Where’s the study to back up this claim?
My own preference for teaching Digital Natives is to invent computer games to do the job, even for the most serious content.
It is good to here Marc talk about his own preferences and what an innovative way of going about teaching. Good on you Marc, My issue, rather is the way his statement has been taken by companies, educators and motivational speakers to turn the realm of education into one big game.
Does this mean that we can ignore Marc’s work? That is simply an interesting picture and can be dismissed out of hand? I would suggest the answer is still NO.
Firstly, if you sat there nodding while you read thinking, either “yep, that’s my son/ daughter” or “those are my clueless teachers he’s talking about.” then that has some merit, and it gains more weight if lots of folks around the globe are nodding away with you and me.
Secondly, since its publication the title of the book has:
24,000 hits on Google 251 blog posts about “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” on Technoratithe most recent on my writing this being 13 hours ago. That is 6 years after its publication.
Finally, when read in the contexts of books such as Growing Up digital by Don Tapscott or The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman it is given some weight, reflected, as it were from these publications.
Is it a scholarly work? Probably not. Is it a well written opinion piece? Perhaps. Does it serve as a wake up call for academia and governments to take a serious look at education? Most definitely.
I agree that Marc’s analogy with second language learning needs to be treated with caution. I increasingly hear Principals declaring “I’m a digital immigrant” and waving their hands of the whole thing, based solely on what is essentially a hypothesis. Of course this isn’t what Marc intended but we need to nip this in the bud. Although youngsters may have a more ‘natural’ aptitude for learning a second language, adults have more coping skills and better strategies for picking up and retaining a language. I once had a 76 year old Somalian lady as my star ESOL student, totally driven because she wanted to be able to talk to her grandchildren. I strongly believe it is the motivation to learn a language / new technologies that is the crucial factor. And if we want to continue the language learning analogy total immersion is a most effective strategy
My Principals and others should stop waving their hands in the air and get them dirty…
Refs (better include some if EducatingtheDragon is on the warpath!!) – Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1989). Aspects of the sociolinguistic performance of early and late French immersion students. In R. Scarcella, E. Anderson, & S. Krashen (Eds.), On the development of communicative competence in a second language (pp. 41-54). Cambridge, MA: Newbury House
I think the metaphor of the native and the immigrant is a useful place to start a discussion. Unfortunately people do tend to start and then rapidly stop and, as the previous commenter notes, flap around madly.
I think the whole thing could be re-thought to allow for just a few more variations.
http://www.nixit.co.nz/wordpress/2006/02/19/act-like-a-native/
Isn’t that a bit linear in logic? The beauty of the metaphor is that here is refers to a world that is in no way linear or logical.
I enjoyed reading your comments about Marc Prensky’s article. I was wondering if you were ever able to find any references for the brain research conducted by Bruce Berry? I have been trying to find his research and have been unsuccessful…..