My students are not all Natives

It was interesting to look at myself and where I feel I sit with my uses of technology being a "Digital Native", a term coined by Prensky (2001). Born in 1984, I grew up using computers and programmes such as the CD-ROM Encarta and eventually the internet to aid in my study; using computers, tablets and smart phones is native to me. My parents, however, fall into the Digital Immigrant bracket; iPads, smartphones, using computers and the internet to study or for work is something they have had to learn. To be honest, my mum can book a cruise and play online bingo and my dad is rather good at Angry Birds but ask them to write an essay on Word and he is lost...

But is it always as clear cut as Natives and Immigrants? As a new lecturer, I was quick to jump on the bandwagon that the millennials (the term I cuold use to describe 98% of my students) would all be Natives and pick up the use of various learning technologies with ease. Farrell (2013) challenges this "myth" explaining that in both the staff and student bodies (regardless of age) there is a mix of natives and immigrants with varying levels of IT proficiency and assuming that educators are out of touch with those born in the 1990s and those born in the 1990s are all adept when it come to tech, we are letting the students down somewhat. Farrell goes on to say that interaction with technology is more to do with opportunity than age" so should we still be using the term native and immigrant when it comes to the use and proficiency of technology in the learning environment.

I have therefore come up with some ideas for the new intake of students to my courses in September. I am going to get students thinking about technology and where they sit with technology use and their confidence when it comes to EdTech. I plan on doing this via quizzes on Moodle and using Padlet similar to the way that DigiLiterati have done when asking us to look at our Visitor/Resident engagement with various digital media in the personal and academic context (White and Le Conru, 2011; more on this in the next blog). I am hopeful that by engaging them earlier on in their studies and offering support where needed, I will be able to increase students confidence in the technologies I use throughout the course and therefore up engagement.

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Farrell, L. (2013) Challenging assumptions about IT skills in higher education, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education Vol. 6 (November)

Prensky, Marc (October 2001). "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants". On the Horizon 9 (5): 1–6.

White, D.S., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement.First Monday, 16(9).

#DigitalNatives #DigitalImmigrants #SocialMedia #MSCBOE #Reflection