Digital Immigrants

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Introduction

"The arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decade of the 20th century has changed the way students think and process information”. (Prensky)
This notion is at the heart of what has become the ‘digital native debate’ – i.e. should education systems be changed in order to accommodate a new generation of technologically savvy learners? The term ‘digital native’ itself refers to those who were born or raised during the age of digital technology; this contrasts with Prensky’s concept of a ‘digital immigrant – i.e. someone who was born prior to the rise and spread of digital technologies ().
By analyzing and drawing on a variety of academic sources, this paper will critically evaluate the ‘digital …show more content…

131). By not incorporating or utilising digital technologies within the classroom many educational commentators fear ‘digital natives’ will become increasingly disengaged with a system that is not in tune with the way they learn and develop. In his article “digital natives, digital immigrants’, Marc Prensky illustrates how many students feel unengaged by traditional teaching methodology – one student stated, “every time I go to school I have to power down,”(prensky …show more content…

He goes so far as to attribute a number of today’s educational problems to the rigidity of digital immigrant educators in regard to digital technologies.( do they really think differently 1) . in part two of his digital native, digital immigrants prenksy presents evidence of just how digital natives think in a different way.

Prenskys desire for a digital educational reform, despite being partially backed up by his own studies, is somewhat at odds with evidence collected by kennedy and anoush. They both conclude that not all ‘digital natives’ are totally tech savvy and in dire need of new teaching methods, with many quite happy to conform to traditional learning

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