What can Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants learn from each other?

We live in a world surrounded by technology and since we are teachers to be,it is important to have the concepts of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants in mind, so as to get to know our students better and be aware of what their interests consist on.

Digital Natives, are what Prensky calls ‘’“new” students of today’’, those who ‘‘have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age’’. Whereas he refers to Digital Immigrants as those who ‘‘were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many  or most aspects of the new technology.’’ (Prensky, 2001)

Why is it important for us as teachers? Well, it is a matter of getting our students interested in English not only as a subject, but also as a part of everyday life. That’s why we need to know that our students may think differently compared to us, or may accomplish the same tasks in a completely different way, but we also need to understand that we can get much more from it and both, student and teacher can learn from each other. In this respect, Jeff Degraaf questions:

What can digital natives teach digital immigrants?

·         To collaborate across boundaries, with a variety of people

·         To make a place in life for values

·         To build solutions that are horizontal

What can digital immigrants teach digital natives?

·         To achieve goals quickly

·         To use focused resources in building things to scale

·         To revitalize or repurpose existing institutions

(Degraff, 2014)

To sum up, we, as future teachers, need to reflect upon these differences we may have with our students and try to reach them in such ways that attract and engage them, not forgetting that we may be positioned ‘’at the middle’’ of that line and we can help each other. A good example of this, is this video we found interesting to share with you. It shows what a digital native thinks and how they manage to get what they want, by means of technology.