Digital natives and the liberal arts: expectations

and technologiesNITLE Research

2008

1: Emergence of a model

Digital natives: 2001

“It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.”

Marc Prensky,“Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”

(from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp)

Net.gen

“Today’s Net Gen college students have grown up with technology. Born around the time the PC was introduced, 20 percent began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8. Virtually all Net Gen students were using computers by the time they were 16 to 18 years of age…”

…Computer usage is even higher among today’s children. Among children ages 8 to 18, 96 percent have gone online. Seventy-four percent have access at home, and 61 percent use the Internet on a typical day.

Diana and James Oblinger, eds.,Educating the Net Generation (2005)

http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen

Gap opens in K-12

“Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized - much less responded to – the new ways students communicate and access information over the Internet. Students report that there is a substantial disconnect between how they use the Internet for school and how they use the Internet during the school day and under teacher direction…”

“Digital disconnect”

“…For the most part, students’ educational use of the Internet occurs outside of the school day, outside of the school building, outside the direction of their teachers.”

Pew study, August 2002http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?

r=67

Opening the gap into college

“You are the first class of the ‘Net Generation’ or if you prefer – The Networked Generation.

You breathe bits of information as easily as my generation breathes air.

As members of the Net Generation, you are entering a world that needs you….”

“… But be aware that much of this world will find your ways of working, learning and socializing quite bizarre. You are digital natives. We – the grey beards, the baby boomers and the gen X-ers – are digital immigrants and our practices will need to evolve rapidly to keep up with yours.”

John Seely-BrownUniversity of Michigan commencement, 2005(http://www.johnseelybrown.com/UM05.pdf)

Corporations adopt

“[R]esearchers Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj refer to this disconnect as the result of poor communication between “digital natives,” today’s students and “digital immigrants,” many adults. These parents and educators, the digital immigrants, speak DSL, digital as a second language.”

Apple web page(

http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html

)

2: Key elements

Privacy note

“[T]he majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online. Just 38% say they have taken steps to limit the amount of online information that is available about them...

55% of online teens have created an online profile and... most restrict access to them in some way. Looking at adults, their use of social networking profiles is much lower (just 20%), but those who use the sites appear to do so in a more transparent way.”

Pew Study, December 2007http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/229/

report_display.asp

Copyright

Grown up in great age of…

• P2p trading• Ready tools for

infringement (JD Lasica, Darknet)

• Industries warring against customers

Remarkable knowledge:

• Copyright law• Fair use• Threats of being

sued• Decreasing privacy

Teens as authors

First, the majority of American teenagers are Web 2.0 content creators.

“64% of online teens ages 12-17... or or 59% of all teens... have participated in one or more among a wide range of content-creating activities on the internet, up from 57% of online teens in a similar survey at the end of 2004.

[these activities include] share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos... create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments...created their own online journal or blog... maintain their own personal webpage... remix content they find online into their own creations…”

Second, all of that is apart from social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace.

“In addition to those core elements of content creation, 55% of online teens ages 12-17 have created a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace...”

(emphasis added)

Third, the majority of teenagers act in some way to protect their information:

While 39% say they restrict access to their photos “most of the time,” another 38% report restricting access “only sometimes.” Just 21% of teens who post photos say they “never” restrict access to the images they upload…

Pew study,http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/

report_display.asp

Presence

• Persistent• In gaming• Multiple

Promo shot for Sony Home, March 2007http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2007/03/72895

One gender note

“Overall, girls dominate the teen blogosphere; 35% of all online teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online teen boys. This gender gap for blogging has grown larger over time. Virtually all of the growth in teen blogging between 2004 and 2006 is due to the increased activity of girls. Older teen girls are still far more likely to blog when compared with older boys (38% vs. 18%), but younger girl bloggers have grown at such a fast clip that they are now outpacing even the older boys (32% of girls ages 12-14 blog vs. 18% of boys ages 15-17).”

Pew study, December 2007http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/

report_display.asp

3: Criticism of a model

In the case of the "digital generation," the class, ethnic, and geographic biases could not be more obvious...

even at elite universities, many are not rich enough to be all that digital. Like the rest of us, they will use a tool if the tool works for them and they can afford it. If not, then not.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, December 2007

(http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2007/12/the_problem_with_digital_nativ.php

)

Limits to the net.gen model: class

Limits to the net.gen model: complexity

“I have spent more than a decade in the constant company of people 18 to 23 years old. The faces change. The age range does not. I have to report that the levels of comfort with, understanding of, and dexterity with digital technology varies greatly in every class. Yet it has not changed in more than 10 years. Every class has a handful of people with amazing skills…”

“… and a large number of people who can't stand computers at all. A few every year lack mobile phones. Many can't afford any gizmos and resent assignments that demand digital work. Most use Facebook and Myspace because they are easy, not because they are powerful (which, of course, they are not).”

Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, December 2007

(http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2007/12/the_problem_with_digital_nativ.php

)

4: Responses

“So let’s keep using the term, but as an aspiration as well as a description. Rather than pretend all kids are Digital Natives, let’s make that our goal. Because if we don’t act, the problems could get even worse.”

-Jesse Baer,Harvard Law, December 2007

(http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/2008/01/04/the-digital-native-divide/

)

“[A]lthough tensions arise between Net Gen and classroom practices, when met head-on these tensions are ultimately productive for both faculty and students. For the faculty, the knowledge and practices that students bring to the classroom reveal new insights for teaching and learning with technology…”

“… For the students, a critical engagement with their own practices results in a broadening of their view of the possible ways to engage technology.”

Sarah Lohnes, "What Do Net Gen Students Have To Teach Us? Stories from the Connected

Classroom", Transformations, 2006http://nitle.org/index.php/nitle/transformations/

2006_12_14

Constructivism and social media:“[I]n all of the classrooms described

above, the emphasis is on viewing students as knowledge producers and publishers.”

-Lohnes (2006)

“One factor may be that all three professors [in the study] are participants, to varying degrees and in different ways, in some of the same (or similar) technology practices in which their students engage.”

--Lohnes (2006)

More responses

• Ambient curriculum

• Critical thinking • Interdisciplinary

approaches• Self-study

• And…?