Digital native

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3s.

In the widest sense, this can refer to people born from the late 1970s and beyond, as the Digital Age did begin at this time, but generally, the term focuses on those who grew up with 2000s technology.

This term has been applied in different contexts such as education (Bennett, Maton & Kervin 2008) (in association with the term New Millennium Learners (OECD 2008)).

Origins

Marc Prensky is acknowledged to have coined the term digital native in his work Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants published in 2001. In his seminal article, he assigns it to a new breed of student entering educational establishments.^[1] The term draws an analogy to a country's natives, for whom the local religion, language, and folkways are natural and indigenous, over against immigrants to a country who often are expected to adapt and assimilate to their newly adopted home. Prensky refers to accents employed by digital immigrants, such as printing documents rather than commenting on screen or printing out emails to save in hard copy form. Digital immigrants are said to have a "thick accent" when operating in the digital world in distinctly pre-digital ways, for instance, calling someone on the telephone to ask if they have received a sent e-mail.

The analogy of the digital native was also used by Josh Spear and Aaron Dignan (Spear's business partner in Manhattan-based agency Undercurrent) who talked about the ones that were "born digital", first appearing in a series of presentations given by Josh Spear in 2007. First, at Google's Zeitgeist^[2] Europe Conference in May 2007. A different version of this presentation was delivered again in December 2007 at the United Kingdom at the Internet Advertising Bureau Engage 2007 Conference.^[3]

A Digital Native research project is being run jointly by the Berkman Centre for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Gartner presented on the term at their May, 2007 IT Expo (Emerging Trends) Symposium in Barcelona.^[4] More recently, Gartner referenced Prensky's work, specifically the 18 areas of change comprising the Work Style of Digital Natives, in their "IT-Based Collaboration and Social Networks Accelerate R&D" research paper published on January 22, 2008.

Discourse

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (June 2009)

Not everyone agrees with the language and underlying assumptions of the digital native, particularly as it pertains to the concept of their differentiation. There are many reasonable arguments against this differentiation. It suggests a fluidity with technology that not all children and young adults have, and a corresponding awkwardness with technology that not all older adults have. It entirely ignores the fact that the digital universe was conceived of pioneered, and created by the digital immigrants. In its application, the concept of the digital native preferences those who grow up with technology as having a special status ignoring the significant difference between familiarity and creative application.

Crucially, there is debate over whether there is any adequate evidence for claims made about digital natives and their implications for education. Bennett, Maton & Kervin (2008), for example, critically review the research evidence and describe some accounts of digital natives as an academic form of a moral panic.

This notion should be considered as highly problematic and inept because it plays down the importance of indigenous struggles by making a false analogy with a more or less chosen membership in technological culture. Using such a terminology is rather a sign of unfamiliarity and exoticism in relation to digital culture. Of course, nobody is "born digital"; as with any cultural technology, such as reading and writing, it is matter of access to education.

It considers that all youths are digital natives in the modern age. However, this is not the case. It is primarily based on cultural differences not by age. According to Henry Jenkins (2007), "Part of the challenge of this research is to understand the dynamics of who exactly is, and who is not, a digital native, and what that means." There are underlying conflicts on the definition of the term "digital natives" and it is wrong to say that all modern age youths are placed in that particular category

See also

• Generation Z
• Homo Ludens
• Information society
• Online identity

References

Bibliography

• Bennett, S.; Maton, K.; Kervin, L. (2008). "The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence". British Journal of Educational Technology 39 (5): 775-786. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00793.x. 
• OECD (2008), "New Millennium Learners. Initial findings on the effects of digital technologies on school-age learners", OECD/CERI International Conference “Learning in the 21st Century: Research, Innovation and Policy”, 15-16 May 2008 Paris, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/39/51/40554230.pdf 

Notes

1. ^ Listen to the Natives // Marc Prensky
2. ^ Josh Spear presentation at Zeitgeist Europe 2007
3. ^ Wanna go to digital rehab? No No No: Talking to the born digital generation
4. ^ "Session Description". http://agendabuilder.gartner.com/spr8/WebPages/SessionDetail.aspx?EventSessionId=900. Retrieved 2008-03-25. 

Further reading

• Aducci, Romina et al. (2008), "The Hyperconnected: Here They Come!", An IDC Whitepaper sponsored by Nortel, May 2008, http://www.nortel.com/promotions/idc_paper/ 
• Lusoli, Wainer; Miltgen, Caroline (2009), "Young People and Emerging Digital Services. An Exploratory Survey on Motivations, Perceptions and Acceptance of Risks", JRC Scientific and Technical Reports (Sevilla: EC JRC IPTS) (EUR 23765 EN), March 2009, doi:10.2791/68925, http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=2119 
• Palfrey, John; Gasser, Urs (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Basic Books. 

External links

• The digital native wiki
• EDUCAUSE 2007 Podcast: Tomorrow's Students: Are We Ready for the New 21st-Century Learners?