Digital Natives and Teaching

           An important aspect to take into account in material designing is the fact that most of our students are regarded as ‘digital natives’. This is a term coined by Marc Prensky and it means that they were born surrounded by technology and know how to use it ‘instinctively’. With this kind of students we can use online material and design activities which are meant to be solved with their computers or even with their cell phones.

           Although it is true that most of our students are ‘digital literates’ of the digital language, not all of them are. In some contexts, many students do not have internet access or computers at their homes because of different political and social situations they live in. We should be aware of this and base our teaching on what they have experienced and on the knowledge they have about technology. Moreover, some students may allege that they know a great deal about technology and software while they may not know basic tools such as Word Processor or information-searching. We should encourage them to learn more about these tools so they can become ‘digital literates’ and profit from them.
           Taking into account that technology will keep being developed and will become a more essential tool in people’s lives, teachers should guarantee that every student has a fair chance in developing his/her digital skills. In our country, Argentina, we have the advantage of having the netbooks provided by the State (from the Conectar Igualdad program) and we should not forget that. It is true that they not always work and that schools may have Wi-Fi connection problems, but it is the teacher’s task to help students and guide them to solve the problems they may have with the equipment.

           Once that we have the necessary equipment, we can design tasks that include technological tools to solve them. The teacher should try his/her best to make tasks meaningful, so students can be more engaged in doing them.

           For more information on this topic, you can read Marc Prensky’s article on ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’ following this link: https://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/PRENSKY+-+DIGITAL+NATIVES+AND+IMMIGRANTS+1.PDF