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by Marc Prensky Our children today are being socialized in a way that is vastly different from their parents. The numbers are overwhelming: over 10,000 hours playing videogames, over 200,000 emails and instant messages sent and received; over 10,000 hours talking on digital cell phones; over 20,000 hours watching TV (a high percentage fast speed MTV), over 500,000 commercials seen-all before the kids leave college. And, maybe, at the very most, 5,000 hours of book reading. These are today's ―Digital Native‖ students. 1 In Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part I, I discussed how the differences between our Digital Native students and their Digital Immigrant teachers lie at the root of a great many of today's educational problems. I suggested that Digital Natives' brains are likely physically different as a result of the digital input they received growing up. And I submitted that learning via digital games is one good way to reach Digital Natives in their ―native language.‖ Here I present evidence for why I think this is so. It comes from neurobiology, social psychology, and from studies done on children using games for learning.

by Marc Prensky Our children today are being socialized in a way that is vastly different from their parents. The numbers are overwhelming: over 10,000 hours playing videogames, over 200,000 emails and instant messages sent and received; over 10,000 hours talking on digital cell phones; over 20,000 hours watching TV (a high percentage fast speed MTV), over 500,000 commercials seen-all before the kids leave college. And, maybe, at the very most, 5,000 hours of book reading. These are today's ―Digital Native‖ students. 1 In Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part I, I discussed how the differences between our Digital Native students and their Digital Immigrant teachers lie at the root of a great many of today's educational problems. I suggested that Digital Natives' brains are likely physically different as a result of the digital input they received growing up. And I submitted that learning via digital games is one good way to reach Digital Natives in their ―native language.‖ Here I present evidence for why I think this is so. It comes from neurobiology, social psychology, and from studies done on children using games for learning.

Hi. I wrote a paper about digital natives as part of an anthropology assignment for a doctoral course. Researchers from around the world have empirically proven that Prensky's theories are false. Additionally, while neuroscience has shown that brains do change as a result of neuroplasticity, to argue that it is generational is also a false claim. Though cognitive theory shows that learners bring their prior experiences to the interpretation of new educational opportunities - impacting attention and interpretation - all generations have had this occur. There is merit to the point that we should take learner's prior experience into consideration when designing instruction; however, Prensky's digital native claims may have done more to create tension between students and teachers than to provide instructional support. If you would like any of the scholarly studies, I have a published reference list at http://brholland.com/reference-list. Beth

Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Very good article on Digital Natives in post-secondary settings.

Wonderful find for teaching resources.

This article is a MUST read for educators. The author states that digital natives do not know the power of the Internet beyond social media. The article contains studies and other information to back up the statement. The author states "Simply being born into the internet age does not endow one with special powers. Learning how to use technology properly requires learning and training."

For the digitally native generation, self-worth is accrued in likes.

- more thoughts on educating digital natives

How many of us have that heart-sinking experience when a presenter talks at us older people as immigrants and the younger as natives, when in fact, we are all in this together.

Educational Origami is a blog , and a wiki, about the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) into the classroom, this is one of the largest challenges that I feel we as teachers face. It's about 21st Century Learning and 21st Century Teaching. Marc Prensky coined the now popular and famous phrase "Digital natives and digital immigrants" in his two papers by the same name. Ian Jukes talks about Digital Children. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. In fact people fit into both camps. We know that experience, like using a computer, will change the structure of our brain, This is a concept called Neuroplasticity. We also know that, the more intense the experience, the more profound the change. Our students, who often have a greater exposure to technology, are likely to be more neurologically adapted, but adults can as easily be "Digital Natives". I made this wiki on request from Miguel Guhlin after I blogged about matching ICT tools to traditional classroom practice and Bloom's Taxonomy.The wiki has grown a little since then.

The thing that worries most non-specialists teaching language is pronouncing words correctly from a book. This is where Forvo is is priceless. Native speaker users and the site itself have uploaded audio clips of word for us non native speakers to copy. The site has 250+ languages uploaded. I tested the Mandarin section, as I understand that, and it was faultless. An amazing resource. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects

A robust rebuttal of Prensky, Tapscott, et al's assertions that contemporary generations are more technologically proficient than their predecessors. The counter-argument is that our society has become more technological and individuals are more or less well adapted to this change. The author of this rebuttal (Pontefract) makes a case based upon logic, personal experience, and several recent research studies.

In 2001 Marc Prensky divided the world into two broad groups, Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. His idea struck a chord with popular culture and has become a dominant paradigm in education. Given the core concept remains a feature of educational dialogues it is worth re-visiting and seeing how the idea might evolve to better serve our needs and understandings of how people born after the internet, learn with and think about, technology.

Awesome promotional video produced by Accenture to explain Cloud computing. The best part is that it features kids -- digital natives -- who are "the future employees of the workforce."

A website that explores the native trees of the UK

Do you have an idea for a school/community native plant garden, a forest improvement project, a streamside restoration plan, a recycling program, or energy conservation project for your students? Need funds to implement it? Apply for a Project Learning Tree GreenWorks! grant!