What Is Digital Native And Immigrant Demystified?

It is a habit for the older generation to compare today’s society to their own, and often time, it is not in the favor of the youth. A prominent though is that the current generation is being corrupted by technology and because of it are at a disadvantage intellectual. One certain critic, Mark Bauerlein, in his book, The Dumbest Generation, makes a bold claim that anyone under thirty are part of a generation dumber than any before. However, studies show a different trend. Technology is not lowering intelligence but changing the way people learn. Because of the influence of the digital world, the current generation has shift to a new way of learning that in no way make them dumber.

Bauerlein, Mark. The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don’t Trust Anyone under 30). New York, NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008. Print.

Since children today have become digital natives; they will never truly know a world that is not touched with technology. This means that the educational paradigm has to shift in order to keep up with the needs of our young learners (Jo, 2016). In the last thirty years, technological advances

For some of us, it is difficult to comprehend why our education systems have not yet made the transition to technology-based forms of teaching especially when we are in the era of technology. To others, the reasoning is clear and they support the original, dated usage of textbooks in a “traditional classroom” setting. The changes in our society are undeniable with the innovation of technology and social media. Although some authors, such as Neil Howe and Jean Twenge, argue that technology is deteriorating the minds of Millennials, technology is also providing Millennials with a way to create connections across communities.

In the text ‘The dumbest Generation: How The Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future’ written by English professor Mark Bauerline at Emory University, he continually emphasizes the implication that the millennial generation has intellectual deficiencies because of their dependency on social media and technology. One of his most relevant theories is that the use of video games and the integration of technology into the classroom has negative impacts on a student’s academic performance because “It conditions the minds against quiet, concerted study, against imagination unassisted by visuals, against linear, sequential analysis of texts, against an idle afternoon with a detective story and nothing else” (Bauerline 95).

Through the provocative title, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don 't Trust Anyone Under 30), Emory University professor, Mark Bauerlein, asserts his thesis. Using statistical information, Bauerlein presents the case that the millennial generation suffers from “Knowledge Deficits” in almost every important subject (11-38). Bauerlein argues bibliophobia (39-69) and distractions caused by technology (71-111) as reasons for the millennial generation’s lack of intellect. Bauerlein further implicates educators, or the mentors (163-203). When educators try to justify the knowledge deficits in millennials by pointing to individualism, Bauerlein ridicules their statements (185).

Through the internet and the change in learning this group is more self motivated to learn from each other versus just from the classroom. They also learn a lot more on their own. This expands “new forms of expression and rules of social behavior” (Source B). Consequently, the internet is more creativity and sense of self. As well as that “what makes these groups unique is that while adults participate, they are not automatically the resident experts by virtue of their age ” (Source C). Proving that Millennials surpass adults in the aspect of technology understanding and knowledge. Overall, the 30 and under generation are more self directed and creative in their learning prior than older

Essay Many Americans today are extremely familiar with the term “technologies and digital media,” and how they are not helping young Americans with education and general knowledge, which led to the generalization that they are the dumbest generation (Mark Bauerlein). However, according to the articles, The Dumbest Generation?Don’t Be Dumb by Sharon Begley, Is Google Making Us Stupid? By Nicholas Carr, and Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, Mizuko Ito et al., the authors all came up with one generalization that technologies and media are helping the young generation in their learning and they are instead, not the dumbest generation. The claim that those under age thirty are “the dumbest generation.”

In this article, Prensky starts by stating obvious differences between this generation, and the ones that precede it. Today, "Digital Natives" or another popular term "Millennials" lives are proof of the impact of technology. They watch more TV, play more video games, and have mastered the art of multitasking constantly being surrounded by gizmos and gadgets. The author describes

Distinctions between “digital immigrants” and “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001a; Prensky, 2001b) have been frequently referenced over the past decade. Much has been written about digital native students as a part of the Net generation (Tapscott, 1998; Tapscott, 2008) or as Millennials (Howe & Strauss, 2000), which generally includes learners “born in the 1980s and later” (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005, p. 1.2). However, little work fully considers the impact of digital immigrant discourse as it appears within the field of adult learning and continuing education. Indeed, such discussion seems increasingly necessary given the growing body of recent evidence calling into question such popular, binary notions characterizing youth as ubiquitously tech

Back in my days, we were not fortunate enough to... Gotcha! Did you expect that to be a dull story like our grandparents or parents may have told to show us how much more difficult their lives were? Not exactly, this writing is about how college students of this generation make use of digital technology. The wide spread of today’s technology via computers or smartphones results in constant connectivity to the internet. Social media, video gaming, information databases, and online classes, have affected college students’ studies. As a result, more students are being distracted, making a wider academic gap with self-disciplined students.

As schools promote 21st-century learning, there has been a push for literacies which encourage students to be 21st-century learners. The two overarching literacies, new and digital, has taken over the three R’s literacy, reading, writing, and arithmetic. New Literacies continuously change due to the new technology emerging providing different ways to get information and communicate with others (Leu et al., 2015). In contrast, digital literacy is the ability to use digital tools to access information for understanding and communication (Jose, 2016). New literacies and digital literacies also differ in aspects of use in the classroom. New literacies are the building blocks for digital literacy; which are the skills students need to understand the internet (Maloy, Verock-O'Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2017). New literacies can be taught without the use of technology because students are learning to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information. Teachers can demonstrate these skills using encyclopedias and journal articles to gain a minimalistic comprehension. Once students learn the necessary understanding, teachers can transfer these skills to online which will promote digital literacy; furthermore, digital literacy can only be taught using digital tools. Teachers would teach students how to use computers and the social practices of the new literacies to gain an understanding of the digital literacy (Jose, 2016). Furthermore, digital literacies

Although today's young adults and teens are familiar or what some might say “geniuses” with the internet, social media, video games. Is it safe to say that they are Digital Natives ?

Technology has been involved in people’s lives forever, especially in the Millennial Generation. This generation consists of individuals born between the years of 1982-2004. The articles “The Flight From Conversation,” “Teens and Technology 2013,” and “Leading The Charge For Change” deals with teens interacting with technology today.Each article has different topics, but they connect through the over dependence of teens to technology. The Millennial Generation becomes less and less in touch with the real world and morphs into a quasi-reality.

The new generation of students entering and already enrolled in university are members of a digital age- growing up surrounded by many forms of digital technology as they are the first generation of youth to have internet technology easily available at their disposal. This current generation have already been labelled by sociologist as “‘digital natives’ (Prensky 2001a) and the ‘net generation’ (Tapscott 1998)” (Prensky 2001a; Tapscott 1998 as cited in Murphy 2010). Technology is not something new to these students as its presence in their life have made them quite comfortable to the idea, as they perceive “technology as a way of life and express a need to feel connected at all times” (Russo et al. 2014). Although what is new are the