RED ANSWERS - Question 5 /// Abstracts

Prensky, M. (2001) “Digital natives, Digital Immigrants”. On the Horizon, Volume 9 (issue 5).
This 2001 article is essentially a first major introduction to the concept of Digital Immigration. A new concept in the day, the terms Digital Native and Digital Immigrant are explained. The article then applies these terms to a the real-life sithuation of education highlighting that misscommunication can easily take place as the two groups do not understand eachother like they used to as digital natives have a different use of language and have a different sense of ethics, politics and sociology. The article concludes saying that lecturers (digital immigrants) should alter the way by which they communicate to their students (digital natives) as they are fundamentally different from students in the past.

Prensky, M. (2004) “The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native”. markPrensky.com.
This article highlights areas in which digital natives particularly differ from digital immigrants. It lists and provides details on how digital natives have different ways of communicating, sharing, buying, selling, exchanging, creating, meeting, collecting, coordinating, evaluating, gaming, learning, searching, analysing, reporting, programming, socialising, evolving and ultimately growing up. It gives theory and examples on each of these topics. The article concludes that norms and behaviours are changing much faster than ever before and that digital natives are creating a new different form of life for themselves..

McHale, T. (2005) “Portrait of a Digital Native”. Tech & Learning.
This article starts giving an example of a typical modern day student's working situation and continues with her views on the technology she uses, calling it her "gateway to the world". She also believes that the she "grew up into" a world that expects her to use technology of this kind.
The article continues by introducing Prensky's concept of the Digital Immigrant and mentions Jane Healey's claim that it is impossible for children to focus on more than one thing at a time.
However, continues to discuss that research has shown that perhaps people up till the age of 17 have had the ability to build up a high level of multi-tasking abilities whilst growing up with digital media. The article continue's to discuss different point of views from experts as well as actual Digital natives.

Prensky M. (2003) “Digital game-Based Learning”. Computers in Entertainment, Volume 1 (issue 1), p21-p21.
This article from Prensky discusses the outcomes of a research by the University of Rochester which suggested that playing action-computer games may have a positive effect on a student's visual selective attention. Prensky then uses this data as a rgument stating that videogames may be a good way of engaging children into learning and that gaming could be used for educational purposes.

Prensky, M. (2006) “Listen to the Natives”. Educational Leadership, Volume 63 (issue 4), p 8 - p 13.
This article start by claiming that many educators are still using their old fashioned 20th century ways ways to try and teach the new generation. The article oncemore explains Prensky's concept of digital immigration and again lists a number of things modern students do differently. It dismisses the claim that modern student's can't engage to anything and suggests that student's are having difficulties engaging to school because school does not address them in the right, modern, digital way why the rest of the outside world does. It is then suggested that educators and students should collaborate more in order to find a way by which student's can regain interest in what happens in the classroom rather than being alienated from it because them and the teachers are not on the same wavelength.