Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Overview
This article talks about Digital Natives (Gen D) vs. Digital Immigrants (DI). Digital Natives are students grades K-College who are computer and technology wizards. Digital Immigrants are people who are trying to catch up to the Digital Natives as far as understanding the technology we are confronted by in this technology era. Students minds this day and age are different, they are a challenge to try and teach. It seems like the education system today is not working, why? It is a "discontinuity" or a "singularity" which means the arrival of digital technology. It is evident that Gen D think differently compared to DI who are also the teachers trying to teach the Gen D. I often hear it in our school today, "these kids are so different compared to us when we were in school, they are so hard to teach." Gen D are kids who grew up with MTV, iPod, Itouch, iphone, cell phones, mp3, Xbox Live, Play Station - 1,2, and now 3, internet, library on their computers, networking, etc.

I laughed when I read this, but this is so true. We as DI would rather print out a form that is on the computer to read it or to edit it. DI would make a phone call to have someone look at this interesting web site rather than sending the URL. On the other hand, Gen D recieve information and process information fast. They network, multitask, they can not stand step-by-step teaching methods. They have little patience for lectures and would rather do somthing on the computer. So what can we as teachers as digital immigrants do to teach the digital natives?
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