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Week 4 Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

In Prensky's article, he defines the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants," highlighting how they differ from each other. Digital natives are people who have grown up surrounded by technology. They prefer to receive information quickly, favor graphics over text, and thrive on instant gratification, such as rewards in gaming systems. On the other hand, digital immigrants are individuals who were taught in a more traditional, step-by-step manner and adopted technology later in life, after the digital age began. The problem arises when digital immigrant instructors teach digital native students; these instructors often believe that multitasking hinders learning, that learning shouldn't be fun, and fail to recognize the skills digital natives have developed through constant interaction with technology. This leads to digital natives becoming disinterested in what's being taught and often being criticized for not paying attention. 

Kirschner, however, disagrees with the notion that digital natives have skills like digitally literacy. They describes digital literacy as going beyond simply using cell phones or browsing the internet. It's about understanding how to use technology effectively for learning, problem-solving, and communication. Kirschner's uses the example of how many college students don't know how to find scholarly information and often rely on Wikipedia. He argues that digital literacy is a skill that needs to be taught, like any other. I agree with this perspective, as I, too, struggle to find accurate information when conducting research for class assignments. 

One idea that stood out to me is the concept of instant gratification. For video lectures, it would be helpful to include questions after specific sections, providing immediate feedback on whether the answer is correct or incorrect. This approach works best with multiple choice, true/false, or fill-in-the-blank questions. It allows students to feel rewarded for answering correctly and, if not, offers guidance to help them find the correct information. Instead of grading these questions, extra credit could be given, with each correct answer worth 0.5 points, up to a maximum of maybe 5 - 10 points per trimester. 

Here's simple quiz relating to Digital Native & Digital Immigrant but my idea would be integrated into the video lectures.

Comm 211

Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant

Digital Natives are described as being accustomed to receiving information quickly.

True

False

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