Activity A5 - teaching/reaching the net generation
Introducing us to debates about the net generation / digital Natives (DNs). Gregor Kennedy interview and paper about their research into Marc Prensky's claims/assumptions about the DNs.
Interview by John Pettit from OU and research paper
Introducing us to debates about the net generation / digital Natives (DNs). Gregor Kennedy interview and paper about their research into Marc Prensky's claims/assumptions about the DNs.
Interview by John Pettit from OU and research paper
Some of the assumptions about the DNs is that they are highly skilled with ICTs, grew up with digital tools all around them, good at multitasking with technology, create and consume web content and are practised at social networking and other web 2 tools.
This is research into how different this generation is to the rest of the generations, is it really an age thing. Many debaters are saying yes they are different. Prensky wrote about the DN in 2001 and he suggested that these people had spent their whole lives surrounded by technology and as a result changed the way they think, with the implications that we therefore have to change the way we teach. Prensky also claimed that students want technology in their education. Prensky's papers, according to Kennedy shocked the educational sector. Kennedy aimed to gather evidence to support or not.
Prensky also labelled the educators as digital immigrants, aliens in the DN environment facing a big challenge, and that the biggest gap in education today is the gap between DI and DN, and that pedagogical models need to change to suit a new kind of learner. Prensky's claims assume uniformity in the generation, that they are all "blessed" with the characteristics of the net generation.
Evidence based understanding of students' technical experiences is vital for informing HE policy and practice and if preferences in their own lives regarding technology are also preferences in their education.
Pilot study in 2006, 2000 1st year students at one Australian University (Uni of Melbourne) (Oxbridge style uni). Survey into their access to, uses of, skills and preferences for technology at university. (Paper linked above is results of this survey).
Followed up with research and three very different universities, Melbourne, Charles Sturt (mostly DL students) and Wollongong University (modern university).
Survey, interviews and focus groups to be able to ascertain process issues and feelings in more depth. The different collection methods garnered a different level of inquiry. Focus groups did have negatives in that not everyone would speak (either because they agree or too scared to disagree). They also gathered information from the support staff and academics (The so called digital immigrants).
Research found that many 1st year students were tech-savvy but it was not uniform or homogeneous.
Students showed a mixture of reactions to whether certain technologies should be used in their education. Kennedy looked at the relationship between frequency of use of technologies and students' desire to have them used in their education and found weak connections for some technologies.
Results - a lack of homogeneity and a digital divide within just this one year group. Countering Prensky's assumptions, so warn educators that overhauling curriculum to suit a homogeneous DN is dangerous. Challenge for educators is how to cater for this broad range of students' levels of access to, familiarity with and preferences for technology based tools.
This study negates a one size fits all approach to integration of ICT in education and supports the argument that integration should also be pedagogically driven.
Educators and educational developments who have expertise in existing and emerging technologies need be proactive against the evidence and assumptions of what DNs students have access to and have preferences for. Evidence should inform policy and practice.
Student equity is an issue, e.g. increase use of podcasts but what if students are unfamiliar with MP3 players, don't have one, have never downloaded or used podcasts then the key benefit of being able to download and listen when you like is lost.
At end of interview Kennedy does not discount the terms ND or DN totally and says there is a lot more research to be done but that we should be more focused on what students' experiences of technology are and not just take the concept of the DN as read.
