Comments on: Mythmaking Digital Natives and Immigrants – do they really exist?

By: Stuart

Stuart — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:06:39 +0000

Apologies to Wolf I am afraid your contribution got caught in an over enthusiastic spam trap.

By: Ponderings, Undertakings & Treasures (PUT) » Blog Archive » “Digital natives” & “digital immigrants”

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:04:17 +0000

[...] http://fno.org/nov07/nativism.html http://connectivism.ca/blog/2007/10/ http://3sheep.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/mythmaking-digital-natives-and-immigrants-do-they-really-exi… [...]

By: Stuart Smith

Stuart Smith — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:29:57 +0000

Thanks for the addtional information Sue, I didn’t get a chance to go Mlearn, so its handy to know that others feel this way too. I think I’ll be expanding on this when I speak at “Creating Learning Opportunities in and out of the classroom” later this week Wigan & Leigh College. One big concern is that the Digtial Immigrants concept might be used as an excuse to avoid getting our “hands dirty”.

By: Wolf Luecker

Wolf Luecker — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:47:53 +0000

I was mainly put off Prensky’s talk when he showed a picture of his small child surrounded by technology – gadgets, robots, laptops, games consoles. He presented that as proof of the ‘digital native’.

Now, I’m not afraid of technology (hey, it’s my job) but I’m kind of glad my daughter of the same age enjoys playing with her Sylvanian Families dolls the most. She will certainly grow up with a *completely* different attitude to technology, but that doesn’t mean all children talk to robots on a regular basis.

Well, maybe in the Prensky house they do…

Wolf.

By: Sue Waters

Sue Waters — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:34:04 +0000

Yes I must admit when I saw Marc was keynote speaker for the Handheld learning conference I wondered how this would go considering keynote speakers at Mlearn Conference talked about digital natives and immigrants but in terms of it being a misconception and misleading.

Great post Stuart which adds to all the posts that many of us are writing about this topic.

By: Kev Hickey

Kev Hickey — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:41:35 +0000

Another genralisation about rules that describe reactions to technology:

“1. anything that is in the world when you are born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works

2. Anything that’s invented between when you are fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career out of it.

3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natuarl order of things.”

Taken from “the Salmon of Doubt” by Douglas Adams

By: Stuart Smith

Stuart Smith — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:30:06 +0000

Absolutely, problems become technology focused as opposed to people focused. Time and time again I see users seeking a new technology rather than coming to grips with the issue they actually trying to deal, this is particularly true for organisations.

Pace of change is definitely an issue – very little of the new technology gets a chance to mature before something is already replacing it.

By: Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:11:05 +0000

I agree with you that this is an artificial distinction that helps organize a talk but doesn’t really have a lot of meaning. First, technology is a really broad arena and most people don’t use most of it or even now it exists. In fact, one of the issues with technology is that people get into silos and don’t see what else is going on around them.

Second, as technology changes which is does very rapidly, people get stuck in a generation of the technology. Only the early adopters seem to try and catch up and they are always dealing with the bugs.