Computer Sciences and Information Technology - Essay Example

Computer Sciences and Information technology Computer Sciences and Information Technology The emergence of technology in our world has opened up many prospects for the future development. Technology is the motivational force for the future. It helps to transform lives and is shaping the future at unimaginable rates. It has infiltrated every part of our society and hence, can be seen in trade, health, social relations, education, work life and health. Technology has also created its impacts on education and training. Have you noticed a recent surge in people who are technologically addicted? People who use social networking websites on a daily basis, posting minute to minute updates, people who listen to music wherever they go on the most latest gadget in the market, people who feel handicapped without such technologies; these people are referred to as the digital natives. Digital natives are those that are born into the culture of technology. Since the day they were born, they have seen technology, observed it, seen its advancement and have the opportunity to gain hand on experience on them. The aim of our investigation is to study and analyze the pros and cons of the culture of the digital natives and how it has affected the learning process in higher educational institutions. The digital natives are considered the new thing while digital immigrants are now considered as a thing of the past. There has been a constant battle between the two and the switchover between digital native-immigrant has been occurring since quite a few years. Oscar Pistorious himself symbolizes how technology can change our life. Prensky said, “The present that we live in, are the futures that our pasts have imagined” (Joy, 2012). In the year of 1970, people got the first exposure towards technology in the form of online bulletin board system. Email was then introduced in the 1980’s whereas the most popular WWW or the World Wide Web gained popularity in 1991. Soon after this, in 2001 Polaroid went bankrupt due to the introduction of digital cameras in to the market. In 2006, Tower records closed their records and till 2008, iTunes became the largest music selling online software available. In this era, everyone you see is the owner of a cell phone, including children. This summarizes the fastest era of technological advancement. Technology has helped shape our lives and has made it as simple as ABC. With the help of technology we can do days work in seconds, businesses does not require capital and can be done over long distance. Religious leader preach through web blogs and everything is available online (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008). Digital natives are also referred to as the Generation Y, the millennia’s and the Net generation. Mark Prensky (2001) has said that the digital natives can easily decipher technology while those who were born before are known as digital immigrants. Being a digital native has its perks some of which are the ability of quick learning, Face less risk when facing computer related issue, can act fast and link to previous unidentified opportunities and many more (McInnes, 2012). A study that researched on the effect of digital technology on university student concluded that the students are limited to only certain technologies. However, the digital natives of engineering used a majority of technology tools as compared to the digital immigrants. This could be because engineers have more in depth and detailed means of approach in technology. The study was not conclusive enough and could not give authentic evidence. Engineering students are more dependent upon the lecturer’s way of teaching, and these lecturers are usually digital immigrants and hence, the students remain limited to the old and traditional ways of study tools with little to no utilization of the new technology. The study suggested that although the rumors regarding the transformation in education may be authentic but yet it would lead to confusion if these rumors could be used to base the shifts in patterns of technology used (Margaryan, Littlejohn and Vojt, 2011). On the basis of the study mentioned, we can say that the digital natives although hare very aware of the technology but they hardly utilize it in their education and rely more on what is taught to them by their teachers who are mostly digital immigrants, who know very little about technology. Since everybody on the world follows a certain culture, therefore how can we exclude the digital natives from this criterion? The digital natives follow a culture that is irrespective of age and is shared by all the millenials. This culture is dependent on certain characteristic that is accompanied by certain incidents that the native experience while growing up in a technological environment and this effects how they deal with the people, institutions and with everything that does not belong to the digital era (McInnes, 2012). There are many educators who are excited about the new generation of students entering various educational institutions. These people have seen technology all their life. This research was conducted on the digital natives themselves and how it affected their education and social skills (Bennett, Maton and Kervin, 2008). There are many institutions that have trained the lecturers to teach online due to increased demand by the students. Many of the Americans are bicultural and live on two cultures in their life. Being digitally aware is more like learning the language of a culture to become a part of the culture (Cross, 2006). Because the digital natives are born and matured in an environment that is full of technology, their capacity to process information is very different than those born before them. This is backed up by evidence that students have actually a different level of frame of mind and flair because of growing in a society enriched with media and IT. But this might give them a sense of disappointment when they experience the real world or the environment in which they learn (Oblinger, 2004). A digital immigrant chooses online course because of feasibility and ease of accessibility, they are not concerned with the graphics or other technological stuff that excites a native whereas a digital native chooses an online course only if it stick to their interest which is why most of them do not prefer online courses because they online courses do not spark a sense of interest in them (Greenberg, Vojir and Whitney, 2000). Digital natives want to remain connected with technology which is not possible in an old setting of teaching. They are more attracted towards things that are interactive, provides them experience, ignite their creativity and allows to utilize all of the above in the environment in which they learn (Chyung, 2001). The learning process of the digital natives is often lacking in certain ways since they are mostly taught by people who are far from technology and their ways of teaching are limited to how they lived their lives. The solution to this problem is to transform this teaching system into more of an experience based system (Prensky, 2001). To maintain the interest of this generation in the process of learning video games are being introduced in to online learning environment. This is done all because the students that enter colleges and universities are very different from their ancestors and hence the teaching system needs to be approached in a different way to keep up with the needs of the new generation (Carsten, 2005). Games can help to build up the learning process in various ways such as it helps to initiate learning in advanced stages, it helps to decipher which technique is useful for the current situation whereas which one is to be avoided, Games also score the individual based on their performance so to give a chance for further improvement, It help to convey the information learnt to different aspect of situations, it gives the player the experience by trial and error and it helps to create a social and friendly environment within a community (Oblinger, 2004, p. 8). Online learning in an institution gives the opportunity to study on a long distance basis, it helps the students to gain a degree that is not possible if a student is working or is busy with his life (Yamamoto, 2010). According to Parent and Eastman (2006) online learning provides the student with undivided attention from the teachers and the students also get evaluated and provided with a feedback so that they can do better in the future. The feedback given serves as a motivating force for many students. The digital immigrants however, are better at learning in the presence of an instructor and do not prefer independent learning and as the course progresses these students gradually develop a sense of independence and require less help from the instructor (Yamamoto, 2010). A major drawback of being digital native is that these students do not receive quality education. Online learning fails to proved the quality of education that was provided once before the era of online learning. Another problem is that the instructors are usually not much aware about technology which is why they struggle a lot with this system and often the quality of education is compromised due to this reason (Lefor, Benke and Ting, 2003). Another drawback is that long distance learning can never be compared to the conventional learning in classrooms. It is said by many that the classical method of teaching is the best way to deliver knowledge to students and is often considered as the teaching method that leaves the rest of the educational systems (O’Lawrence, 2006). Lao and Gonzales (2005) conducted a study which consisted of interviews from various instructors and showed their point of view. Some agreed on the fact that online education was in fact below the traditional system of learning. All because they were insufficiently trained in technology and hardly knew much about it. But the feedback from the students about online learning gained positive reviews and this review majorly consisted of students who were digital immigrants. According to them, this system allowed them to study without creating disturbance in their social life and since the instructors involved in online learning are digital immigrants, it is often seen that these sessions replicate the conventional learning system. The digital natives are progressing with the passage of years and have gained popularity in various institutions and that there are certain teaching systems that benefit both digital natives and digital immigrants. Although, online learning systems are feasible but they do so at the cost of quality of education. The drawbacks mentioned in the paper maybe dealt with by providing the instructors proper training regarding technology and its utilization to the full extent. But efforts are not only limited to the digital immigrants but should be made by the digital natives as well. The digital natives should be taught how to learn by conventional systems so that if and when faced with the possibility of ever encountering such a system, they would not find it difficult to catch up and learn. Bibliograph Joy, O. (2012). What does it mean to be a digital native?. CNN. [online] Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/04/business/digital-native-prensky/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2015]. Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital. New York: Basic Books. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon. McInnes, W. (2012). Culture shock. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Margaryan, A., Littlejohn, A. and Vojt, G. (2011). Are digital natives a myth or reality? University students’ use of digital technologies. Computers & Education, 56(2), pp.429-440. Bennett, S., Maton, K. and Kervin, L. (2008). 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