Millenials as Digital Natives revised

My readings for this week took me on a research adventure into the world of generations, but more specifically, the Millenials or the N-Gen as some would call them. Although not an expert on the subject, through my research I would argue that the N-Gen is a subculture of the Millenials. The N-Gen are digital natives and have never known life without the internet, hence the name N-Gen or Net Generation. So what does this all have to do with my research thesis for Digital Media class? Everything. Last week I attempted to develop my thesis around the dual definition of the digital divide. Desiring to investigate the ills of society and the effects the economic divide has on technology in poorer school districts, and the technological gap between Baby Boomers and the N-Gen, I was faced with the reality of the overwhelming task of connecting the two. Hence, this week I am concentrating my efforts on researching the intergenerational digital divide and the challenges our society and educational system faces trying to narrow it. I find this topic to be of importance because there is a need to create a participative learning environment using digital media convergence to optimize student learning. Thus my revised thesis is the learning styles and "language" of digital natives is making traditional classroom lectures ineffective and compelling educators to use video games and other means of technology to teach basic literacy and math.

Researchers, academics and marketers alike are fascinated with this generation and thus there is a plethora of research on the Millenials, but very little on the digital generational gap between them and their teachers. Ultimately I have found a few articles that address the subject. I will share overviews and highlights of two them. Teaching Millennials, Our Newest Cultural Cohort by Angela Provitera McGlynn addresses our modern day educators and exhorts them to get to know this generation, their thought process and how they learn. She theorizes that the N-Gen students gravitate toward group activity, learn differently and interact differently than older generations. They embrace teamwork, experiential activities and gravitate toward technology. In fact, they cannot and have not lived without technology. She lists among their strengths a collaborative learning style and the ability to multitask. The Millennials love of technology has fostered a strong collective intelligence in that much of their life lessons come from interactions on social networking websites, chat rooms and in some cases digital video games. McGlynn implores her colleagues to embrace the characteristics of this generation and use them to properly educate the students in the classroom. Such characteristics include their desire to stay connected to family by means of electronic communications such as email and cell phones, and work collaboratively. Additionally she encourages teachers to “learn what we can about using technology effectively to enhance learning”.

In part one of a two-part series, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, author Marc Prensky also engages the reader in the topic of the Millennials, but warmly refers to them more as the Net Gen or N-Gen. In addition to this generational catch phrase he introduces to a term he prefers, Digital Natives, meaning this generation are “native speakers” of a digital language involving the use of personal computers, video games and the Internet. Prensky also introduces the comparative term Digital Immigrants, or those of us who have embraced technology, but later in our lives. He emphasizes Digital Immigrants learn and retain but always keep our “accent”. One example as mentioned by Dr. Xia in class is the inclination for Digital Immigrants to print out a document from the computer in order to edit it instead of just editing it on the screen. I have to admit I am often guilty of this digital crime and get angry if I run out of ink and can’t print out something just to read it over. Prensky also does a great job of discussing the topic of my paper which is the effect this digital divide has on our current education system. He points out that most of our current day educators are from a pre-digital age and speak an outdated language, and thus have a hard time teaching Digital Natives. Teachers are boring these students because they are used to getting information quick from the internet, and like to multi-task like listening to music and/or watching tv while studying or doing homework. They do all of this while texting on their cell phones. I must admit as a parent of two Digital Natives, this drives me crazy and I do not understand it at all. Prensky also addresses the enormous project of teaching Natives the basic content of reading, writing, arithmetic etc, but in a language they understand and at a much faster speed and using technology.

Both of my articles address the current struggle educators are facing keeping the attention of Digital Natives in the classroom and learning to teach them in a language they can comprehend. Additionally, my second article addresses how many educators are tossing around the idea of developing tools to teach the basics using video games and advanced software. The future of academics might just come in a Nintendo or Wii box with a joystick.

http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/pdf?vid=9&hid=105&sid=c542e05f-789a-4caa-aa32-08ae0c90329e%40sessionmgr107

http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/resources/Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants.pdf