Extent of Use of Technology in Learning by Digital Natives - Research Paper Example

Research and Academic Skills (Author’s name) (Institutional Affiliation) Executive Summary 1. It has been proven that all young generation are digitalized in such a way they practice modern technology and internet in learning thus termed as digital natives. 2. There are so many changes that are taking place in a student body that is related to age due to effects of modern technology such as social networking, gaming and use of gadgets like computers and smartphones. 3. There is a gap between students and most of their teachers due to the fact that most of them have experienced different learning systems 4. Most modern students prefer the use of information and communication in their studies of which they find more convenient and easy to understand. 5. Since it is obvious students are not going to change their mode of learning, support systems should be recommended. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Context and Purpose of the Study 4 Background and Outcomes 4 Extent of use of Technology in Learning by Digital Natives 4 Comparison with Digital Immigrant 7 Conclusion 7 Recommendation 8 RERENCES 8 Introduction Context and Purpose of the Study The internet technology, advancement, and improvement of new machines like computers and smartphones have become a very big part of modern life in almost all human beings. As a result of this, the young generation has been given the name millennial due to their ability to access information and resources in a more digitalized manner (Şenel, 2015). Due to these changes, nature of how modern generation acquires knowledge has been discussed by different authors who have portrayed it to be different from traditional learning (Brown, 2015). The modern generation is said to understand technology and learning faster and hence they said to be digitally native. This study tends to show how these digital native generations have used technology in their process of learning, their extent of use, what they need to do to improve their learning and the difference between their mode of learning as compared to digital immigrants(Şenel, 2015). Background and Outcomes The today generation has been immersed with digital technology which is highly networked and easier to use than the previous generation (Brown, 2015). Scientist and educationist have claimed that the modern generation thinks differently even others outlining that they have different and more developed physical brain. Digital natives exhibit a totally different expectation of life and learning plus their social characteristic are unique as compared to the previous generation (Brown, 2015). They prefer multitasking and relying on communication technologies like Facebook and another social media, preferring active more than passive learning, receiving information and understanding quickly and have minimum tolerance to lectures (Brown, 2015). Extent of use of Technology in Learning by Digital Natives According to Marc Prensky individuals are divided into two broad groups, those who actively use information and technology and those who are passive users (Brown, 2015). The active users have been termed so many names including the internet generation, cyber kids, machines players and grasshopper minds (Brown, 2015). These are the digital natives who are people born after the 1980s. Digital natives can be further be subdivided into two, the millennial who are people born between 1980 to 2000 and the generation Z born as from 2000 to present ( Şenel, 2015). In addition, digital natives are often described as those people who were born in the technology age, help to improve technology and have the capability to utilize maximally the modern technology (Georgieva, 2014). They have made the use of information and technology their mode of living and utilize it even in leisure time. These generations have undergone different developmental milestone of technology since the year 2000 due to change in technology and networking. For example, the following events have changed and emerged as from the year 2000(Georgieva, 2014). Table 1; technology advancement per certain year year event 2001 iPod 2003 Itunes music 2004 Facebook 2005 YouTube 2006 Google doc 2007 Smartphones and tablets 2010 I pad The digital technologies have become part of digital native’s day to day living and lifestyle in such a way it has changed their mode of living in so many different ways (Georgieva, 2014). This includes establishing, developing and maintaining relationships through social networking, retrieving and posting information through the computer and mobile technologies and using and applying cloud productivity tools to access computing application and deliver information over the internet (Georgieva, 2014). When considering the amount of time the modern digital generation spends on technology from the time they are children until they graduate from higher education, the statistic is extremely shocking (Georgieva, 2014). Children and little kids play games for more than 10,000 hours, they receive and send more than 200,000 messages and emails, and they speak over the phone for more than 10,000 hours, watch entertainment TV for more than 200,000 hours and watch over 500,000 advertisements .On the same period, they only read books for about 5000 hours only (Georgieva, 2014). Due to a high concentration on the digital world, digital native students tend to have a wide range of difficulties and problems in various fields of life ( Georgieva, 2014). They usually have communication problems, understanding with digital immigrant teachers mostly in a classroom environment and interaction. Mostly these problems are due to the fact that both the teachers and student were educated at different education systems (Georgieva, 2014). In these scenarios teachers to student and student to teacher, relationship is always difficult and often criticized negatively due to reciprocal disagreements. The solution only occurs where if the teachers are digital immigrants and students digital native, a traditional classroom is provided (Georgieva, 2014). Due to the fact that digital natives are said to have skills in information and technology, they tend to believe they have specials skills and styles (Rogers, 2014). However, their beliefs help them to adopt universal characteristics that motivate and facilitate their learning and understanding of new information. They are able to understand technology tools can be restarted easily and can quickly solve problems when they arise hence they do not portray any fear when using the technology (Rogers, 2014). In addition to that, digital natives view technology including the internet as real physical environments instead of the virtual environment as it is (Rogers, 2014). Digital natives are actually afraid to break technology. A study was done by Yong and Gates on how digital native use technology in their day to day activity in 2014 and the answers are as showed in the table below (Rogers, 2014). Table 2: Students’ daily technological usage time - mean/average Entertainment male female native immigrant total internet 3.61 3.84 3.88 2.62 3.77 telephone 2.32 3.88 3.49 2.96 3.44 Online game 2.49 2.62 2.65 1.92 2.58 Facebook 2.75 1.68 1.99 1.92 1.98 Online game 2.76 2.76 2.71 2.85 1.42 Watching TV 2.37 3.25 3.01 2.92 3.0 Listening to music 2.37 3.25 3.01 2.92 3.0 academic 1.78 3.14 2.79 2.46 2.74 homework 1.70 2.8 2.47 2.75 2.49 From the above table, it is clearly that, digital native students use most of their time on the internet, phone calling and watching TV more than they do in the academic and homework. In that case, therefore, the researchers came up with various characteristics concerning digital natives’ students (Rogers, 2014). These characteristics include the utilization of technology in their all phases of life, they prefer searching of information and materials of reading on the internet and through social networking, they are highly active in digital technology thus transforming to be good technology users with capability of using multiple jobs in one single tool of technology and communication (Rogers, 2014). In addition to that digital natives have great expectations during their learning which include; learning and making discoveries through playing games, searching and obtaining information very fast, preferring the use of graphics other than texts, reading and writing randomly other than directly and performing more than one job at the same time (Rogers, 2014). Comparison with Digital Immigrant Digital natives have a different world view as compared to digital immigrant in such a way they view the world horizontally with no respect of hierarchies assuming everyone is on the same level (Rogers, 2014). They are driven by values making them to practice a habit of sharing ideas and information freely and in such instances, they normally cross boundaries (Rogers, 2014). Due to these characteristics, most of them cannot be trusted to adhere to traditional cultures and social institutions including schools, government and religion as digital immigrants do. This is due to differences in their education system periods. The advantages of digital natives as compared to digital immigrants are that they tend to use more democratic and equality as guided by general values (Rogers, 2014). This makes them be more aggressive, result obsessed and comparative thus they are more productive. On the other hand, the digital immigrants tend to be more goals oriented other than value oriented (Rogers, 2014). Although they can also get the things done quickly as digital natives they are guided by the long-term results of their actions. In that case, therefore, it is obvious that digital immigrants can be taught several things by digital natives which include; making life place for values, determining solutions that are horizontal and making corroboration with a variety of people. On the other hand, the digital immigrant can teach digital natives on how to archive goals, to be focused on available recourses and to make purposes on existing institutions (Rogers, 2014). Conclusion To summarize, there are two broad categories of people in when it comes to digital learning and technology which are digital natives and digital immigrants. Digital natives are those people born as from 1980 and have experience and understand modern technology more quickly. They are further subdivided into millennial and generation Z (Rogers, 2014). The other group of digital immigrant was born earlier and has not spent all their lifetime with the modern technology. Digital native has various characteristics which include that they understand modern technology quickly, they are able to quickly solve problems when they arise hence they do not portray any fear when using the technology (Rogers, 2014). In addition to that, digital natives view technology including the internet as real physical environments instead of the virtual environment as it is (Rogers, 2014). Furthermore they utilize technology in their all phases of life preferring searching of information and materials of reading on the internet and through social networking. They are highly active in digital technology thus making them good technology users and they have capability of using multiple jobs in one single tool of technology and communication (Rogers, 2014). Recommendation Further studies should be performed where scholars and researcher should focus on personal learning over the internet technology since all the modern generation at schools are digital native where not only they are familiar with the technology but they were born and live with technology (CACM Staff, 2014). Regarding that, the multiplatform environment of learning should be considered. This should be implemented by employing the use of multimedia platforms (CACM Staff, 2014). In addition, researchers should examine the relationship between the use of technology and educational settings of the countries (CACM Staff, 2014). Through this, the specific outlines platforms should be determined by examining students in additional to its importance taking the comparison with the traditional methods (CACM Staff, 2014). Digital native opens the international platforms, therefore, the student should also be examined in this area to bring the difference between digital natives and digital immigrant students (CACM Staff, 2014). Glossary 1. Digital Native- modern children born in the technology era and use it in their daily activities. These are people born as from 1980. 2. Digital immigrants-People who were not born in technology era and have difficulties in fitting in the modern use of technology and internet. They were born before 1980 RERENCES Georgieva, V. (2014) The digital natives in the new age .Trakia Journal Of Science, 12(4), 366-371. http://dx.doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2014.04.006 CACM Staff, (2014). Free the digital natives. Communications Of The ACM, 56(12), 8-9. Brown, L. (2015). Digital Natives , Canadia Theatre Review, 164, 31-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/ctr.164.005 Rogers, R. (2014). Digital methods (1st ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Şenel, M. (2015) CLIL and digital natives Ijlet 1(UDES 2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.18298/ijlet.461 Read More