Thanks to an ***entry|http://drbacchus.com/wordpress/?p=972*** at Richard Bowen’s ***journal|http://drbacchus.com/journal/***, I’ve been introduced to the writing of ***Marc Prensky|http://www.marcprensky.com/***. In particular, I’m fascinated by his “classic” two-part essay on “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”. To boil it down, “Digital Natives” are those people who have grown up surrounded by technology, and are “fluent” in the language. “Digital Immigrants” are the older generation who have not been surrounded by technology for their whole lives. These two articles help to put a face and a name to an issue that I have thought about quite a bit.

I don’t technically fall into the “Digital Native” category. It wasn’t until fourth grade or so that I was really exposed to any type of computing technology or gadgetry. Television, yes, but television doesn’t actually count as “digital”, as far as I’m concerned. The first computers for use at home were introduced a few years before I was born, but affordable, capable, easy-to-use home computers didn’t really come about until I was in elementary school. However, once I was exposed to computing and other technology, I took to learning it very quickly, and I think it’s safe to say that I’m about as close to a “Native” as an “Immigrant” can get.

I have to deal with less-fluent Digital Immigrants every day. I’m all too familiar with the “accent” as Prensky describes it. Printing out emails, calling on the phone to make sure an email arrived, going to Google as a second or third source of information. They can’t identify with the way I think, and though I can identify with the way they think, I still don’t understand why they don’t “get with the program”. There are even people who are about the same age as me, and have roughly the same opportunity for exposure to technology as me, but nonetheless seem to revel in their anachronistic ways.

Even still, I’m not a Digital Native. I still learn best by reading books, instruction manuals, and documentation. Video games generally don’t appeal to me, and I’ve never found them to be useful for education. Though I do pretty well at parallel tasking, I’m not quite at the level of today’s youth.

We are moving towards a society in which everyone will be a Digital Native. By the latter half of the 21st century (2060-2070 is my guess), the last of the Digital Immigrants will most likely be passing on. It will be interesting to see how the education system will adapt – for a while, we will still have Digital Immigrants as college professors, teaching the new Digital Native teachers. Will they pass on their old teaching methods from generation to generation, or will they admit that a new age has dawned, and bring themselves up to speed?

We shall see.