Comments on: Episode 32 – Going Native

By: John Palfrey

John Palfrey — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:07:01 +0000

Thanks very much for taking up this issue in such depth. I am puzzled, though, to be honest, about many of the assertions that you make here about our argument in our book “Born Digital.” First, we didn’t coin the term “digital natives”; we credit the educator Mark Prensky and others, who did. We certainly agree that there is no such thing as a “digital generation.” A key aspect of our project was to take up this commonly-used term, “digital natives” — which is awkward, at best — and to seek to redefine it. A large part of our project was to taken on the (mis-)perception that all young people born after 1980 are in fact alike in this respect. It is for this reason that we make the argument that this group is a population, not a generation, in the first chapter of our book. Throughout, we argue that one of the key things is to realize the broad range of different skills and levels of sophistication that young people have in terms of technology use. We call the “participation gap” — the gap between those young people with great tech and analytical skills and those without — the most important policy issue that our research raises. I am puzzled that a careful reading of our book could have resulted in a reader to think that we believe otherwise.

Sincerely,
John Palfrey

By: Who’s invited to the party? « history-ing

Who’s invited to the party? « history-ing — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:38:25 +0000

[...] Who’s invited to the party? Siva Vaidhyanathan recently wrote an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “Generational Myth.” In it, Vaidhyanathan makes the blunt statement, “There is no such thing as a ‘digital generation.’” He goes on to debunk the idea of a generation of “born digital” or “digital natives” who are fundamentally skilled at operating digital technology. Meanwhile, Dan Cohen, Mills Kelly, and Tom Scheinfeldt offered up their slightly differing perspectives on the issue on Digital Campus #32. [...]

By: Tom Hanson

Tom Hanson — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:32:21 +0000

The digital native/digital immigrant debate is a very interesting one. At OpenEducation.net we took an in-depth look at the topic, particularly as it relates to teaching and learning, in three separate posts:

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/09/22/digital-immigrants-teaching-the-net-generation-much-ado-about-nothing/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/09/23/net-generation-nonsense-mark-bullen-discusses-teaching-and-learning/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/09/26/though-net-generation-concerns-overhyped-integrating-technology-the-right-step/

Our second post featured a Q & A with Mark Bullen, the founder of the web site, Net Gen Nonsense. Your readers may find our discussion interesting as well.

Tom Hanson
Editor
OpenEducation.net

By: Editor B

Editor B — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:01:41 +0000

I appreciated the automobile metaphor, but I cringed every time you used the phrase “digital natives” throughout the discussion.

By: b.rox » Blog Archive » Digital Natives

b.rox » Blog Archive » Digital Natives — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:54:24 +0000

[...] caught the attention of the good folks at Digital Campus, who devote the better part of their current episode to a discussion of digital natives. Although they take Siva’s article as a jumping-off point, [...]