People born after 1984 are considered “digital natives” – those to whom digital technology should be second nature. It’s that kid who knows more about computers than you ever did. But taken as a whole, digital natives might be a myth, argues a paper published in Teaching and Teacher Education. Students who grew up in the digital world are no better at information skills simply because they were born into such an era. The study also presents evidence that these supposed “digital natives” are no better at multitasking either. In fact, assuming that they do may harm their education.
The term “digital native” was popularized by the author Marc Prensky in a 2001 article. He differentiated between “digital natives” as those who are “native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet, and “digital immigrants” – those who are not born into the digital world but adopt the technology. The natives are supposed to have unique characteristics that make them completely different from the digital immigrants.
Authors Paul A. Kirschner from the Open University of the Netherlands in Heerlen and Belgian Pedro De Bruyckere say no such distinction really exists. They cite a growing number of international studies that show how students born after 1984 do not have any deeper knowledge of technology. The knowledge they have is often limited and consists of having basic office suite skills, emailing, text messaging, Facebooking and surfing the Internet. And the tech they use…
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