Digital native debate

I have a problem with the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants". In this world of political correctness, I feel these terms are a little distasteful and should not really be in common use.

It is well known that immigrants work very hard to adapt themselves to their new country and if we apply this to the Web 2.0 world, this may well be what occurs. The generation born before 1980 who are,( according to Prensky 2001) the "digital immigrants" were actually around at the start of the computer age and were probably even involved in the development of the technology. If it is applicable to their lives and work, many appear to embrace Web 2.0 technology and work hard to use it in appropriate ways. The Net-gen use Web 2.0 technology in a more intuitive way as it has always been around for them but are they necessarily better at it? They are possibly more confident about their use of the technology but may have issues with how they deal with the knowledge that is available to them. There is such a rich knowledge base-how do they sift through it to find what they need?

My students are all post-graduates but still fall into the Net Gen. This means that they are very familiar with Web based technology but may not necessarily want this incorporated in their course. I think they will access the technology they require when they need it in the Clinical Skills I teach to 1st year medical students at NDU. They already access web sites, vodcasts, lectures that have been uploaded onto Blackboard. Theyattend the clinical skills session for the face-to-face interaction as well as to practice skills under the tutors' guidance. If I was teaching "digital immigrants", I don't think I would be changing how I teach as they would access the technologies as they needed them.

The debate today seemed to have arguments both for and against the the concept of digital "natives" and " immigrants" My thinking is that to have this separation is probably artificial and I don't know if it helps us to teach our young students any better.

There is also no consideration of socio-economic circumstances in this debate. It applies to those who can both afford and access the technology. Our previous PM promised a computer on the desk of every school child but that does not seem to have been achieved especially in remote and rural communities. How do we classify this group of the so-called Net Gen who don't have free and easy access to any part of Web technology?


Ref: Prensky, M(2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
http://www.marcprensky.com