Digital Natives

Digital Natives

Introduction 45’

I decided to talk about a very popular subject nowadays : « Digital Natives ». These two words may not ring a bell to you but without knowing it, we are all part of this new generation of people.

I chose the following problematic : What are the consequences of such a different generation ?

In this presentation, I will try to define the concept of  « Generation Y » (that’s the other expression for Digital Natives) and why are people like us so different from older generations such as our parents’ or our grandparents’. Indeed, teachers and employeers are having issues to understand how to get us to work and we will see which measures do they use.

1st part : Definition of Digital Natives 1’20 (2’05)

Firstly, let’s see what is a digital native and where does this expression come from ?

This term was created in 2001 by Marc Prensky in his article « Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants ». The expression means that we were born during the arrival of computers, smartphones and so on (in the 80s), and that this is why we are very at ease with the use of these new tools. According to Prensky, Digital Natives have a different brain structure (or at least a different way of thinking) than older generations, especially because of the place connected objects are taking up in our life.

By opposition, people who were born before the 80s like our parents are called digital immigrants : indeed, they were born when technology wasn’t really developped, and they had to get used to it. That’s why our parents or grandparents do not feel that comfortable when using a smartphone, writing an email etc.

For Prensky, 2000 represents a break in the way new generations learn.

2nd part : how does technology has an effect on our brain ? 2’30 (4’35)

It’s a well known fact that our brain cells constantly evolve according to the experiences we live, the things we do and the tools we use.

When we ask difficult questions to students, they will instantly search for the answer on Google. But the problem is that they will forget the answer they just found after a couple of hours. They are thereby dependent on external memories.

Of course this may sounds bad for you but I’m going to give you several examples about the benefits of technologies’ effects.

Generation Y represents the first generation to grow up with new technologies. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, smartphones and all the other tools of the digital age. Today, on average, students have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Here’s a graph that shows you how many time new technologies are taking up on a day.

Digital Natives are used to receive information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. More reactive and more creative, they have the ability to summarize reports or articles for example and can treat several subjects at the same time.

Indeed, playing video games and using third dimension technology improves their spatialisation, their reactivity and their coordination between their eyes and their hands.

All these differences are leading to a kind of conflict between our generation and the older generation (also called generation X). This is what we are going to see right now in the 3rd part.

3rd part : Conflicts with Digital Immigrants (teachers + employers) 2’ (6’35)

We must take in count that our parents and we have grew up in a different world, economically and socially speaking. Our vision of the world hasn’t been forged on the same events.

• For example, we grew up in a period of crisis, unemployment whereas our parents grew up after the thirty glorious, when our world entered into a consumer society.

Let’s see why generations are having difficulties to work together.

From a teaching POV

Prensky said :  “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. We need to reconsider both our methodology and our content.” But reforming the ways of learning is actually harder than it seems to be.

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