Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Part I

Article published in «On the Horizon» — 2001 — Vol. 9 — No. 5 (October) — p. 1-6In a two-part series entitled "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives," Marc Prensky employs an analogy of native speakers and immigrants to describe the generation gap separating today's students (the "digital natives") from their teachers (the "digital immigrants"). The digital natives Prensky describes are surrounded by digital media to such an extent that their very brain structures may be different from those of previous generations. Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multitask. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work. In contrast, those not born in the digital world reveal their non-native status through a "digital immigrant accent" that manifests itself in a number of ways—printing out a digital document to edit it rather than editing it online, for example.