Digital native

, playing Talking Gina The term digital native describes a person who has grown up in the Information Age. The term "digital native" was coined by Marc Prensky, an American writer, speaker and technologist who wrote several articles referencing this subject. This term was specifically applied to the generation that grew up in the "digital age", predominantly regarding individuals born from 1981¹ onwards, namely Millennials, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha. It proposes that individuals from these demographic cohorts can quickly and comfortably locate, consume and send digital information through electronic devices and platforms such as computers, mobile phones, and social media. The ideas underlying the term "digital natives" says that they are distinguished from digital immigrants, people who grew up in a world dominated by print and television, because they were born before the advent of the Internet. Supposedly, the digital generation grew up with increased confidence in the technology that they were encircled and in which they were engulfed. Proponents of this term believe that this occurred in part because of their predecessors growing interest in a subject that was previously unknown and that, due to their upbringing, this digital generation of youth became fixated on their technologies as it became an ingrained, integral and essential way of life.…

, playing Talking Gina]] The term digital native describes a person who has grown up in the Information Age. The term "digital native" was coined by Marc Prensky, an American writer, speaker and technologist who wrote several articles referencing this subject. This term was specifically applied to the generation that grew up in the "digital age", predominantly regarding individuals born from 1981 onwards, namely Millennials, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha. It proposes that individuals from these demographic cohorts can quickly and comfortably locate, consume and send digital information through electronic devices and platforms such as computers, mobile phones, and social media. The ideas underlying the term "digital natives" says that they are distinguished from digital immigrants, people who grew up in a world dominated by print and television, because they were born before the advent of the Internet. Supposedly, the digital generation grew up with increased confidence in the technology that they were encircled and in which they were engulfed. Proponents of this term believe that this occurred in part because of their predecessors growing interest in a subject that was previously unknown and that, due to their upbringing, this digital generation of youth became fixated on their technologies as it became an ingrained, integral and essential way of life. Prensky concluded that due to the volume of daily interactions with technology, the digital native generation had developed a completely different way of thinking. They further believe that though the brains of these youths may not have changed physically, pathways and thinking patterns had evolved and their brains had changed to be physiologically different than those of the bygone era. Repeated exposure had helped grow and stimulate certain regions of the brain, while other unused parts of the brain were reduced in size. The terms digital native and digital immigrant are often used to describe the digital generation gap in terms of the ability of technological use among people born after 1980¹ and those born before. The term digital native is a highly contested concept, being considered by many education researchers as a persistent myth not founded on empirical evidence, and many argue for a more nuanced approach in understanding the relationship between digital media, learning and youth. ==Origin== Native–immigrant analogy terms, referring to age groups' relationships with and understanding of the Internet, were used as early as 1995 by John Perry Barlow in an interview, and used again in 1996 as part of the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. The specific terms digital native and digital immigrant were popularized by education consultant Marc Prensky in his 2001 article entitled Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, in which he relates the contemporary decline in American education to educators' failure to understand the needs of modern students. His article posited that "the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decade of the 20th century" had changed the way students think and process information, making it difficult for them to excel academically using the outdated teaching methods of the day. In other words, children raised in a digital, media-saturated world, require a media-rich learning environment to hold their attention, and Prensky dubbed these children "digital natives". He also goes on to say that digital natives have "spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers and videogames, digital music players, videocams, cell phones and all other toys and tools of the digital age". Globally, 30 percent¹ of the population born between 1988¹ and 1998 had used the Internet for over five years as of 2013. ==Conflicts between generations== The generational changes between digital natives, and their predecessors, the digital immigrant, have been astronomical. According to a study conducted by Tapscott, after interviewing and studying 11,000 young digital natives, he was able to determine eight different social norms between digital natives and the digital immigrants before them. Digital natives were offered the freedom, creativity to customize and ability to scrutinize, unlike their predecessors. For this generation, digital natives prioritized corporate integrity and openness when it was time for them to choose a career. These digital natives also began to seek entertaining and innovating career choices. Corporate integrity and openness also applied to consumer products, with digital natives more likely to choose products recommended by their friends. With playful mentalities, this new generation also brought with them a "need for speed". The eight social norms differentiated these digital natives, as well as the development of the need for approval from their peer groups. Because many digital immigrants are used to a life without digital technology or may be hesitant to adapt to it, they can sometimes be at variance with digital natives in their view of it. The everyday regimen of work-life is becoming more technologically dependent with advancements such as computers in offices, improved telecommunication, and more complex machinery in industry. This can make it difficult for digital immigrants to keep pace, which has the potential to create conflict between older supervisors and managers and an increasingly younger workforce. Similarly, parents of digital natives clash with their children at home over gaming, texting, YouTube, Facebook and other Internet technology issues. Much of the world's Millennials and Generation Z members are digital natives. According to law professor and educator John Palfrey, there may be substantial differences between digital natives and non digital natives, in terms of how people see relationships and institutions and how they access information. In spite of this, the timetable for training young and old on new technology is about the same. Prensky states that education is the single largest problem facing the digital world as digital immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. Digital natives have had an increased exposure to technology, which has changed the way they interact and respond to digital devices. In order to meet the unique learning needs of digital natives, teachers need to move away from traditional teaching methods that are disconnected with the way students now learn. For the last 20 years, technology training for teachers has been at the forefront of policy. However, immigrants suffer complications in teaching natives how to understand an environment which is "native" to them and foreign to immigrants. Teachers not only struggle with proficiency levels and their abilities to integrate technology into the classroom, but also, display resistance towards the integration of digital tools. Since technology can be frustrating and complicated at times, some teachers worry about maintaining their level or professionalism within the classroom. Teachers worry about appearing "unprofessional" in front of their students. Although technology presents challenges in the classroom, it is still very important for teachers to understand how natural and useful these digital tools are for students. To meet the unique learning needs of digital natives, Forzani and Leu suggest that digital tools are able to respond immediately to the natural, exploratory, and interactive learning style of students today. Learning how to use these digital tools not only provides unique learning opportunities for digital natives, but they also provide necessary skills that will define their future success in the digital age. One preference to this problem is to invent computer games to teach digital natives the lessons they need to learn, no matter how serious. This ideology has already been introduced to a number of serious practicalities. For example, piloting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the army consists of someone sitting in front of a computer screen issuing commands to the UAV via a hand-held controller which resembles, in detail, the model of controllers that are used to play games on an Xbox 360 game console. (Jodie C Spreadbury, Army Recruiting and Training Division). Gamification as a teaching tool has sparked interest in education, and Gee suggests this is because games have special properties that books cannot offer for digital natives. For instance, gamification provides an interactive environment for students to engage and practice 21st century skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, and digital literacy. Gee presents four reasons why gamification provides a distinct way of learning to promote 21st century skills. First, games are based on problem solving and not on ones ability to memorize content knowledge. Second, gamification promotes creativity in digital natives where they are encouraged to think like a designer or modify to redesign games. Third, digital natives are beginning to co-author their games through the choices they make to solve problems and face challenges. Therefore, students' thinking is stimulated to promote metacognition since they have to think about their choices and how they will alter the course and outcome of the game. Lastly, through online gaming, digital natives are able to collaborate and learn in a more social environment. Positive effects from gaming have been seen, one effect is expanding social relationships either preexisting or forming new social bonds. Based on the literature, one can see the potential and unique benefits digital tools have. For example, online games help digital natives meet their unique learning needs. Furthermore, online gaming seems to provide an interactive and engaging environment that promotes the necessary skills digital natives will need to be successful in their future. ==Age discrimination in recruitment== The popular adoption of the term "digital native" has caused concern to equality campaigners in various countries, including the United States and the UK, where the term has been used as a process for selection in recruitment. This has resulted in a number of successful legal claims. ==See also== Digital addict Digital phobic Homo Ludens Information Age Information society Internet age Millennial pause Online identity Social Age Thumb tribe ==References== ==Notes== Shah Nishant and Sunil Abraham, Digital Natives with a Cause? (2009) available online Rojas, Viviana. "Communities, Cultural Capital and the Digital Divide" Media Access: Social and Psychological Dimensions of New Technology Use. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ==Further reading== ==External links== Debate on Digital Native EDUCAUSE 2007 Podcast: Tomorrow's Students: Are We Ready for the New 21st-Century Learners? Commercial Media Viewing Habits: Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants – Graduate Thesis Paper Video experience on a 20-month-old baby who discovers a touchscreen Ongoing research project 'Digital Natives with a cause' being conducted by www.cis-india.org in India Digital Learners in Higher Education research project – a blog that tracks the net generation discourse. Museum of Social Media – a museum that includes scholarly articles on digital natives and the impact of social media.

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