The emergence of 21st century skills movement due to technology has affected how educators and students navigate their learning environment and get instructions. For instance, while the students’ brains may not have changed physically or so, their thinking patterns have transformed due to the advancement of technology. Today, students are in the digital generation or age leading to the coinage of the terms “digital native and digital immigrants.” Digital natives are native speakers of the digital language of technology based on the use of the Internet, and computers as well as other devices. In this discussion board, the paper differentiates the kinds people using technology and the effects of the differences between digital immigrants and natives.
Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants
Digital natives are people born after 1980s and are comfortable using the digital age since they grew up utilizing technology. On their part, digital immigrants are individuals who were born before 1980s and may not be comfortable using the digital technology. Imperatively, digital immigrants are a bit older since they were never raised in the digital environment and have to make efforts to learn using different components of technology (Costley, 2014). The digital natives have embraced and interacted with technology since their childhood and they speak the digital language as a native one.
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Differences
Digital natives have an equalitarian view of the world as they perceive the universe from a horizontal perspective. the natives see the world and everyone in it as existing on equal terms or level. The natives embrace and like sharing the benefits of ideas and things since they can cross different boundaries; class, ethnic and age as well as cultural (Christensen et al., 2011).
Conversely, digital immigrants view the world differently as they consider meritocracy and competitiveness. The digital immigrants are outcome-obsessed and considered as cutthroat competitors by the younger generation; the digital natives. While they have the capability to do things fast, they always consider the long-term effects of their decisions and actions.
More studies have indicated that the brains of digital natives are engaged actively when they scroll through a webpage as compared to reading a text that is in print form. The world of digital natives reflects a genuine form of democracy as well as equality (Costley, 2014). Further, the digital native students look at learning in a different manner since she or he does not have boundaries that will limit their ability to understand new concepts and embrace change (Koonce, 2019). In addition, digital natives are value-based as they prefer parallel processes and multi-tasking while on their part, the digital immigrants are goal oriented.
Effects of the differences on the ability to learn
These differences impact the ability to educate the learners in a host of ways. while studies demonstrate that learners above 65 years have positive attitude towards the use of learning technology to execute daily activities, the learning process becomes a struggle because of the different way that the generation views their world (Koonce, 2019). The digital immigrants deal with complicated emotions and are goal oriented. These perspectives impair their ability to enhance their confidence and get new concepts faster compared to the digital natives whose thinking patterns are broad and accommodative. Today’s students have the ability to think and process information in different way from the earlier generations because of their altered thinking patterns (Koonce, 2019). The implication is that digital natives can navigate the learning environment in an easier manner compared to the digital immigrants. These differences also imply that education instructors must develop effective strategies and methodologies that resonate with individual learners based on their digital divide to attain optimal learning outcomes.
References
Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2011). Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Costley, K. (2014). The Positive Effects of Technology on Teaching and Student Learning.
International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education . Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov
Koonce, G.L (2019). Issues and trends in education leadership. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
