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Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Do They Really Think Differently?. EDUC 4306.02 – Dr. Dawn Wilson. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. –Marc Prensky
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Digital Natives, Digital ImmigrantsDo They Really Think Differently? EDUC 4306.02 – Dr. Dawn Wilson
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants • Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. –Marc Prensky • Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures. –Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Baylor College of Medicine
Digital Immigrants • Not born into the digital world, but have since adjusted to current technology • Use the internet and technologies as a second content source • Learn step by step; teach step by step
Times have changed. http://scienceblogs.com/clock/past-present-future.jpg ... 1900, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2009, …
The Current. • What the heck is Grandma doing?!?!
Digital Natives • Technology grown individuals (21st century children) • Use the internet and technologies as their primary content source • Learn through interaction; can we teach them?
Do They Really Think Differently?! According to Marc Prensky: • Neuroplasticity occurs throughout life • People with different inputs think differently • As musicians’ brains are physically different – it is very possible that Digital Natives’ brains are also wired differently • Digital Natives have “hypertext minds” http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2623572.htm
Article 1:Simulations, Games, and Learning According to Diana Oblinger: • Promotes active learning either real or simulated • Requires personal goals and decision making • Involves adaptation and working well with others • Creates stronger logic and social skills • Mastery of knowledge and strategic skills • Connections to Learning include:
Article 2:Changing Brains? • According to Gary Small, M.D.: • More time in one activity = stronger pathways for executing that activity • Musicians, Athletes • Internet increases brain’s capacity to be stimulated • Greater working memory, better at perceptual learning, and better motor skills http://www.drgarysmall.com/images/cover_iBrain_1.jpg Gary Small, M.D. Director of the UCLA Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior.
Article 2 (cont):Thinking Differently… • Gary Small M.D. says: • Digital Natives make “snap decisions” • Can “juggle multiple sources of sensory input” • Digital Immigrant’s brain is trained differently to socialize and learn • Address individual things one at a time • Step-by-step process
Pros of Technology • If a “digital native” thinks in a different way… shouldn’t the classroom teach in a different manner as well? • Provides independent learning • Curriculum available outside the classroom • Stimulates different learning (auditory, visual) • Facilitates different learning (kinesthetic) • Prepares students for today’s world
Meaningful Learning with Technology According to David Jonassen: • “Thinking is enhanced when learning with technology, not from it.” • Technologies are tools that engage students in deeper levels of thinking and reasoning, including causal, analogical, expressive, experiential, and problem solving.
Virtual Classroom. http://www.jvkco.net/mrb/technology/classroom.html
References • Interlandi, Jeneen. “Reading This Will Change Your Brain.” Newsweek 14 Oct. 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://www.newsweek.com/id/163924. • Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Computers as mindtools for schools: Engaging critical thinking. Columbus, OH: Prentice-Hall. • Prensky, M. (2001a, September/October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf. • Prensky, M. (2001b, November/December). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-6. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf. • Oblinger, Diana. (2006, May). “Simulations, Games, and Learning.” Retrieved September 14, 2009, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3004.pdf.