Digital Natives Digital Immigrants - Unit 1

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, vol. 9 no.5.

Mark Prensky’s article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” is on the disconnect between how “today’s” students learn and how they are being taught. Prensky argues that if today’s students are to succeed, teachers will need to completely revamp their teaching style and gear it towards a multi-tasking, hyper sensory, easily board student body. Although Prensky addresses some interesting points, his entire thesis seems very misguided and biased toward an older, less tech savvy generation. Although today’s students are indeed more technologically advanced, Prensky’s argument seems a bit rash and overly dramatic.

It may be true that most students today are very familiar with technology and easily adapt to new forms, yet Prensky’s assertion that “students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors,” assumes this based on the difficulty of an older generation at adapting to new technology. Learning new technology is not the same as learning a new language. Learning new technology is about acquiring new skills. Young people just happen to be faster at acquiring new skills. This does not mean that their brains have change because of technology, they just are more familiar with the digital age. Additionally, Prensky calls today’s students Digital Natives and older people Digital Immigrants. While these names are fitting to an extent, all people today are at an ever increasing demand to understand and use technology in the work force. Young people may be at an advantage for understanding technology and using it, yet older people are not excluded from having to know and use these new skills.

Prensky suggests that today’s students on average have spent 5,000 hours of their lives reading yet over 10,000 of their live playing video games and 20,000 years watching TV. However shocking and overwhelming those numbers are, he offers no reference to studies which confirm these facts and makes huge generalizations about young people. Although it may be true that some of today’s students may well spend more time watching TV or playing video games, these numbers assume a certain economic level, education level, and interest level. While not all students enjoy reading, not all students enjoy video games, thus Prensky uses these numbers more to shock the reader into believing his argument than to actually proving his argument.

Perhaps the most shocking and outrageous argument of Pensky’s, is where he states, “It’s very serious, because the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdate language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” While there may be some truth to how difficult it is to teach to an ever advancing technologically savvy generation, it would be a far cry to say that this is the biggest problem facing education. There are so many bigger social justice issues facing education today, such as funding, it is hard to stomach Prensky’s statement.

While this article did not speak to the real challenges of adapting education to technology in a rapidly changing digital age, it did offer a new perspective and issues to ponder, perhaps asking the reader how they will adjust in the coming years.