Marc Prensky (a gaming entrepreneur) wrote an article in 2001 about Digital Immigration and Digital Natives. This article was called 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants'. It can be found at:
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
In this article he discusses what is meant by the term 'Digital Immigrant' and also 'Digital Native'. He states in the article that there is a divide between students and teachers and how students have been brought up in a world of technology and they have always been around new technologies, where as teachers haven't been brought up (when they were youths) in a world of technology and new technologies and they are instead having to adapt to it.
'Digital Native' is used as a term for the students who have always been around technology and brought up around new technologies, because they are used to it and it is a lifestyle for them and as Prensky states they are: “native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.”
In contrast, 'Digital Immigrant' is used because, like immigrants coming to a country, people who could be classed as this have to adapt to the new technology and new environment. To explain this better he says: "The digital immigrant accent includes going slowly, going step-by-step, using outlines for organisation, reading manuals, going to the Internet second rather than first. Digital natives find this accent and approach very hard to deal with"
I feel that Prensky's attitude towards both the digital immigrants and digital natives is that the digital immigrants may need to change the way in which they teach to adapt even more to the digital natives, but then again is that right? Or should they both find a common ground?
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