July 14, 2006
Decoding 'Digital Natives'
An article in The Sunday Times explores the schism between “digital natives”—students who have grown up using an arsenal of high-tech tools—and “digital immigrants”—in other words, everyone else.
Most of the arguments raised in the piece will be familiar to anyone who’s read much about Millennials (The Chronicle, October 7, 2005): The natives, we’re told, are endlessly devoted to their cellphones, adept at multitasking, and possessed of seemingly short attention spans.
But Andy Clark, a former director of cognitive science at Indiana University at Bloomington, provides some food for thought. Digital natives should be regarded as cyborgs, Mr. Clark argues, because their thought processes have become intimately—and irrevocably—tied to the technology they use. “It will soon be harder than ever to tell where the human user stops and the rest of the world begins,” he says. —Brock Read
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The article reminds me of just how backward and upside down people can see things. It is nothing but a jumble pieced together from anecdotal snippets. Let’s continue this with readings from “Chariots of the Gods” shall we? Then we can all complain about students who email us instead of making appointments as they should.
— Bob Calder Jul 16, 02:20 PM #
Hmm. So playing a complex game is more conducive to learning than passively watching Big Brother! This has little to do with technological tools and everything to do with complexity, active engagement and problem solving.
And while I’m at it, there are plenty of people in their fifties and sixties who are plugged-in multi-taskers. Some of us started using computers in the 70s.
— carol thompson Jul 17, 08:29 AM #
Carol’s point is well-taken and one that is far too often overlooked in these “oh me, oh my” pieces. There is a large and relatively unacknowledged group of boomers who are fully wired and use technology to a similar degree, if not in exactly the same way, as the Millenials. My suspicion is that many young-ish journalists make an assumption about the relative digital literacy of boomers based on their own personal experience of their parents and the social circles they live in.
— Marc Orchant Jul 17, 09:08 AM #