Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

According to Prensky, what is the immigrant/native divide and how has it affected the way students learn?

Digital natives are those who have grown up with access to digital tools such at the computers, cell phones, video games, etc. Natives are part of the most recent generation, gen z, and are today's students. Digital immigrants are those who were not born in the digital world but have adopted many of todays digital tools. The divide between digital natives and digital immigrants is that even as immigrants become accustomed to technology, because of how they were socialized most of their life, it may always come as a second nature. This divide affects the way students learn because this divide exists between most teachers and students. Digital natives can't always understand the "accent", as Prensky calls it, that digital immigrants retain from before they had the tools of modern technology. Often, immigrants don't appreciate natives skills they have learned surrounding technology and assume students learn in the same ways they always have. This assumption hurts digital native students who have developed new skills throughout their formative years due to the use of technology.

Kirschner discussed some of the myths associated with Prensky’s findings. One of the myths that he discusses is how being a ‘digital native’ doesn’t necessary mean one is ‘digitally literate’. What does she mean?

Kirschner argues that there is not a lot of evidence to support Prensky's findings around digital literacy. Instead, the evidence actually shows that many students who grew up in the digital age have a limited amount of technological literacy, focused on basic skills like surfing the internet and socializing. He concludes that there is not as wide of a disconnect between generations because digital natives general use of technology is not advanced and their "digital literacy" has been greatly exaggerated.