Week: 8/9 Question 4 & 5 combined

Prensky, M (2001) "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", On the Horizon, Vol 9 (Issue 5) [accessed 13/03/09]

This article looks at the idea at how technology and education in society is changing and is written by the theorist who coined the terms 'digital natives/immigrants' Marc Prensky. New users such as digital natives and immigrants are created as a way of subcategorising the skills in which individuals have when looking at the concept of new media within different generations. Prensky refers to accents employed by digital immigrants to try and allow them to learn skills that the natives have. The article also looks at the ideas of education and the limitations between generations because of the development of new media.

The ways in which immigrants think and understand is very different to the natives due to the generation gap. Immigrants try to heed the ideas and methods of the natives but still prefer some of their own older ‘immigrant ways’, where as natives enjoy simple, quick methods which allow them to have instant gratification. If the immigrants want to continue to help natives to develop in their learning, they have to continue to try and get used to the new media/digital concepts which the natives find more interesting. They must try to continue and learn these skills as society continues to develop else the divison between the two groups may become even bigger. This is a very detailed paper in this field, providing a great amount of information based around the ideas of digital natives and immigrants.


Glogowski, K, (2005), ‘Blog of proximal development: Teaching. Blogging. Learning- Digital Pioneers?’ http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2005/08/01/literacy-in-the-digital-age-part-ii/ [accessed 13/03/09]

This article establishes and discusses the gap between digital natives and immigrants through the difference of generation. It highlights some of Glogowski’s individual opinions as well as highlighting the works of Prensky and other theorists. He goes on to discuss the idea of how teachers are the “source of all knowledge and education but the electronic environment of knowledge-building changes that dynamic and allows the learner to see the surrounding world as an environment to be absorbed or - listened to”. He also went on to mention the notion that digital natives perceive reality through ‘oral listening’. However Glogowski’d doesn’t agree with everything that Prensky suggested: Glogowski argues that ‘the two categories of digital natives and immigrants do not accurately represent what is now happening in education’. This relates back to the an idea I mentioned in a previous post whereby theorists such as Prensky suggest that you have to be either a digital native or an immigrant, there is no area in the middle.


Adams, D (2008) ‘Gaga for Google in the Twenty-First Century Advanced Placement Language Classroom’ Clearing House Vol 82, Issue. 2. pg 96-98, http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ816791&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ816791 (12/03/09)

Once again this article looks at the idea of a gap between generations. He discusses how ‘immigrants’ (in this case teachers) have had to resort to using more digital methods in their teaching to help keep students (digital natives) interested in education. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, it is a case of adapting to the continuous development of our techno-determinist society and digital technology. This journal looks at how digital natives have changed from previous generations due to the fact that they have been brought up with this new medium. Adams looks at a programme known as the ‘Advanced Placement Language and Composition Programme’ that tries to include the Web and various applications such as Google Apps to learning.