The digital native is a child born during the introduction of digital modern technology and has a natural understanding of its concepts. They are native speakers of the digital language of computers and technology. Computers, video recorders, mobile phone, IPods and instant messaging are all crucial parts of their lives. These digital natives are surrounded by toys, gadgets, tools of the digital age which means they think and process information in an extremely different way to their predecessors. A digital immigrant faces a problem, we speak an outdated language that of the pre-digital age and we are likely to get scared by new technology.
As parents we can feel intimidated by technology and feel we do not know enough about it. Older generations have been socialised in a different way. As with all immigrants some will adapt better to their environment than others. They may still keep a foot in the past and not turn to the internet first to look for information.
More than ever children have been born and raised in a digital and media saturated age. Whilst this is not always a good thing due to their compulsive reliance on the internet we need to adapt to their needs. The arrival of this digital technology means that our children and students have changed and they may need education to change.
I grew up with a chalk blackboard in my classroom. Nowadays my son who is only three years old learns by using an interactive whiteboard in his kindergarten which enables him to walk up to the board and literally interact with the questions or puzzles. Children are learning in different ways due to this modern technology.
Our pupils are able to collect information in a variety of ways and often communicate in ways very different to us.
Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine suggests ‘different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures.’ The problem is that digital immigrants are often speaking a different language to digital natives and therefore are struggling to teach the new generation. Digital natives like their information fast; they can multi-task and may benefit from background noise when working. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. We can meet them half-way and teachers can offer podcasts, adding quality digital resources to the typical printed ones already on offer. Homework can be posted on-line and assignments can be marked and scores revealed by the computer. It will be a long journey but hopefully we as teachers and parents can and will engage the digital native!