What are some characteristics of digital natives? (What are they good at? What are they poor at?)Pictures speak more than a thousand words. You can basically figure out the differences between a Digital Native and a Digital Immigrant from the picture above. Digital natives are those who were born in an age of digital technologies and raised with these digital technologies pervading their lives. We on the other hand are the Digital Immigrants who are left gasping for breath in a digital laden environment (I’m referring to the likes of me).
Based on research and studies, we know conclusively that Digital Natives’ brains are physiologically different from ours due largely to huge exposure to digital media. They would naturally have expertise or competences that are different from us. Digital Natives may be contrasted with the Digital Immigrants in terms of the following:
• Parallel versus linear processing: Digital Natives have parallel cognitive structures while Digital Immigrants have linear processing. While we focus on one task at a time, Digital Natives are comfortable multi-tasking; they could listen to music, talk on mobiles and surf the net at the same time. This no doubts enable them to complete multiple tasks in a shorter time. I question the quality of work done though.
• Graphics first versus text first: Digital Natives are primarily visual learners as the exposure to computer games and other digital media has enhanced their visual spatial skills and texts are subsidiary aids for these visuals. We on the other hand rely more on texts which may then be reinforced with visuals.
• Connected versus stand-alone: the development of internets and other digital media has resulted Digital Natives to be connected even over far distances and it is even extended to the popular LAN gaming. The Digital Natives may then collaborate actively with others over these channels. They thus adopt the slogan “Think globally, Act globally” in contrast with the Digital Immigrants; traditional approach of “Think globally, Act locally”.
The contrast of Digital Natives with Digital Immigrants has highlighted what these Digital Natives are good at but they too have areas they need to address and improve. Digital Natives are weak in reflections which involves learning from experience. Reflections are essential as it enables us to generalize with the formation of mental models.
Which portrait did you select? (In your blog, create a link to the portrait.) In terms of their digital background, how similar was that student compared to a Singapore student?
Dylan is an interesting subject that I have chosen to review. Dylan is a typical Digital Native who uses a wide array of digital technologies ranging from educational tools to learn phonics, websites to showcase his projects, online forums, chats and conferences to collaborate with others for his projects to making video and publishing them on YouTube. This sounds familiar to what most students in Singapore are using. Singapore children with access to computers, the internet, mobile phones made possible by the affluence of the nation have learnt or are learning to apply these tools in daily life. The pervasiveness of these digital technologies is alarming, you could just observe the people around you one early morning and you are bound to see multiple digital tools used by those people. I, labelled as a Digital immigrant have social networking accounts; rely primarily on the internet to search for information, blog occasionally much less students who are Digital Natives.
How might teachers in Singapore today engage and teach our digital natives?
Teachers in Singapore may start by recognising that students or the Digital Natives’ brains are physiologically different from us backed by evidence from neurobiology and social psychology.
From this fact stems the need to innovate the teaching approach to engage students. Knowing that students have parallel cognitive structures, teachers can no longer teach in linear or sequential fashion. They must attempt to create interactive lessons with frequent feedbacks. They can also use text sparingly and have more visuals in their lessons since students use text as subsidiary aids to learn. The use of concept maps may be helpful as it reinforces mental maps in the students. Teachers can pose challenging problems to students to motivate students as they may be bored easily.
It is hard for most teachers including me to move away from traditional approaches to teaching that emphasises linear thinking but knowing that students are vastly different now and learning can only be achieved by revising our teaching approach, we must make an effort to bring about changes.
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