Digital Natives… 

Are teachers up to the challenge?

Nobody can deny that today’s children and adolescents are not the same they used to be some years (maybe decades) ago. There has been a radical change in their lifestyles, ways of approaching learning, thinking and processing information. It is now frequent to see 2-years old kids “mastering the art” of using iPhones, and we should not be surprised if a boy or a girl ends up teaching us how to use a computer programme. The truth is that they were born in the digital age, where everything surrounding them is connected in one way or another, to digital devices such as computers, videos, digital music layers, videocams, cell phones, etc.

The term to refer to this new generation of kids and teenagers is Digital Natives; whereas all those of us who where born before the 90’s are commonly known as Digital Immigrants. The following chart clearly shows the differences between these two generations and provides a simple reference that we, teachers and future teachers, should bear in mind.

 In this sense, it is important to highlight that Native’s teachers are mostly Immigrants and therefore… are their teaching practices appropriate, appealing and significant for these new kids? The answer is simple. Unless teachers learn to communicate in the language and style of their students, acknowledging the fact that they receive information really fast and like to parallel-process and multitask, they will not be able to cope with this unprecedented challenge. It is not an easy task, but we can profit from our learners since, as Mark Prensky states “Smart adult immigrants accept that they don’t know about their new world and take advantage of their kids to help them learn and integrate”.  I believe that the most important thing for Immigrants teachers is to recognize this “lack of knowledge” and start working and looking for the best tools, resources and ideas as well as developing their creativity to offer students more memorable and fruitful learning experiences. 

I would like to share with you a very short video that summarizes what Digital Natives, our today's learners, expect from schools and teachers, and stress this important idea:

 "My school has to keep up with me,  not the other way around"

Sources: 

-Marc Prensky, 2001, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"

- http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupId=1111374
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ5Vy9BgSeY