Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

According to Prensky, what is the immigrant/native divide, and how has it affected how students learn? 

Prensky describes the division between immigrant and native digital users as being a "big discontinuity" (Prensky). Digital immigrants did not grow up having technology at the touch of a button so they are used to adapting to new ways to do things but they tend to do them with a touch of how they learned. They might be used to reading long articles, hour-long lectures, or step-by-step breakdowns of something from start to finish, usually a long process. Unlike the digital natives who are used to learning everything fast-paced and at their fingertips. This has affected how students learn because we have teachers who are teaching how they learned the material and students who don't understand since it is not in the way that they are used to taking in information and so they can become bored or distracted. 

 Picture from: https://www.splashlearn.com/blog/bored-at-school/

Kirschner some of the myths associated with Prensky's findings. One of the myths he discusses is that being a 'digital native' doesn't necessarily mean one is 'digitally literate'. What does she mean?

Kirschner discusses the myth that though there are digital natives they don't possess the skills needed to be digitally literate. Many of the digital natives are so used to technology that they do not learn the necessary skills to be able to use technology "effectively and efficiently" (Kirschner and De Bruyckere). They may have a more easier time using technology but they use it more for personal use such as social media, entertainment, photos, etc they don't often use it to further their learning making them not digitally literate.

Picture from: https://the.ismaili/mozambique/how-can-we-be-more-digitally-literate

References

Kirschner, Paul A., and Pedro De Bruyckere. “The Myths of the Digital Native and the Multitasker.” Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 67, Oct. 2017, pp. 135–142,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.001.

 

PrensDigital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” On the Horizon, vol. 9, no. 5, Sept. 2001, pp. 1–6.