Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

   a)      Who are Digital Immigrant teachers and Digital Native students as categorized by the author?

Digital Immigrant teachers are today’s educators, who belong to the last generation, and are accustomed to the old way of learning and teaching. The use of technology in classrooms was not common in the olden days.  It is a challenge for the Digital Immigrants to adapt to the new methods of technology-assisted learning and teaching which are present today.

Digital Native students are the students of today who have been using technology in their classrooms and daily lives since a very young age. These students are very skillful and tech savvy and prefer to learn things through the use of technology.

   b)      List down 3 differences between Digital Immigrant teachers and Digital Native students.

-          Digital Immigrant teachers are accustomed to and like to learn things step by step, whereas Digital Native students process information very quickly and are capable of multi-tasking.

-          Digital Native students prefer pictures over reading though texts.

-          Digital Immigrant teachers cannot learn effectively while watching television or listening to music because they lack practice. Digital Native students, however, can learn effectively in this manner.

   c)       What is meant by Digital immigration accent? List down 3 examples of digital immigration accents.

Digital immigration accent is described by the author as the immigrants “foot in the past” meaning it is their unwillingness to let go of the learning and teaching methods of the past. Different people have different variations of accents; some are thicker than others which means they are more stern in holding onto the old ways.

Examples of digital immigration accents:

-Printing out a document to edit, instead of editing it online

-Asking someone to physically come into your office to view a file, instead of emailing it

-Printing out manuals of new products, instead of learning straight from the device itself

   d)      According to the author, what is the biggest serious problem facing education today?

The biggest problem facing education today is that Digital Immigrants, who are unfamiliar with the latest technology, are trying to teach students who are adept at technology and learn in a very different way from their instructors. The methods of teaching differ from the methods of learning by the students. There is a gap between the two.

   e)      Should the Digital Natives learn the old way, or should the Digital Immigrant learn the new way?

The Digital Immigrants must learn the new way, as the students of today have already learned to study in the new way and it may be impossible for them to go backwards, due to the way their brains work. The Digital Immigrants should work with the Digital Natives to quickly learn and adapt to the new ways of learning.

   f)       What should the Digital Immigrant educators really want to teach the Digital Natives?

Digital Immigrant educators really want to teach Legacy and Future content to the students. They should teach about the past topics such as logic, arithmetic etc., as well as the future content such as nanotechnology and hardware. The future content also includes languages, ethics, and politics etc that go along with the technology component.