ARTICLE SUMMARY:Digital Natives/Immigrants— This article highlights how students today think and process information fundamentally differently from students of the past. This is a result of beginning surrounded by technology their entire life. This article compares these "digital natives" with the older generation who are learning and adopting new technology naming them "digital immigrants". It compares the facts about the technical and educational skills of native speakers and immigrants. It is more than just a generation gap separating today's students from their teachers. The way the brain is wired and how it responds is different.
What I learned: Students today are able to multitask and are capable of doing so. They learn differntly from previous students. The problem is our educational system has not caught up with them. This is something I have often thought about but never in this detail. I do not allow my children to watch tv, play on the computer, or text their friends during homework time. Maybe I need to take a closer look at how my children function best and quit living in the past myself.
Was this valuable? Yes! Scarry that my children are in school during a time where the generation gap is so large but it provided me with a lot to think about and discuss in my own district.
Discussion critique: Most people seemed to agree that there is a difference in natives vs. immigrants in technology. The natives seem to be much more intuitive about every new skill than the immigrants. The immigrants seem to question why more easily than accepting it just is. There seemed to be an undertone from the immigrants of why we need to change, it has worked just fine in the past. It wasn’t that they didn’t see any benefit from the technology but they didn’t see that the benefit was greater than the benefit from the old school methods. Most still felt that traditional instruction has a place in the classroom and the technology was good but was an extra.
Suggestions on how the discussions could be improved: Nothing - I thought it was great.
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