By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
Are you a “digital native?” If so, you may be experiencing the frustration that many “digital natives” feel when taking an online course from an institution that utilizes popular learning management systems, such as Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn, or even Angel or Moodle.
The problem comes in because the procedures and behaviors that one would use when taking a class online through Blackboard or WebCT have very few points of contact with the kinds of experiences “digital natives” are likely to have. Digital natives feel comfortable with “just in time” learning with video games. They discover by trial and error how to operate their phones, mp3 players, gameboys, X-Boxes, cameras, and laptops computers. They rarely, if ever, read a manual or go through an online tutorial or training session. Instead, they click buttons and move through menus.
Marc Prensky coined the phrase, “digital native,” which he contrasts with “digital immigrant.” According to his article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” digital natives are “our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (Prensky, 2001, para 3). Prensky maintains that the activities engaged in by digital natives resulted in an alteration in innate cognitive functioning. He believes that the cognitive gap between those who feel comfortable with digital devices and those who do not creates real challenges and opportunities in education today.
Similarly, with respect to software, digital natives are not likely to feel very comfortable with extremely rigid programs that do not allow one to search or customize.
Digital natives are used to using the Internet in the following ways:
- gathering information and shopping online (iTunes, Amazon, eBay, Amazon marketplace, news portals)
- communicating via interactive programs (e-mail, instant message, blogs, podcasts, photo-sharing, file-sharing, social networking programs)
- making financial transactions (billpay, online banking) and researching options
- sharing files and information (music, movies, audio)
However, digital natives are less comfortable with the data-crunching and word-processing computational tasks of older generations. For example, one cannot assume that a person who is comfortable with putting up a MySpace site will be extremely comfortable with creating spreadsheets or databases, or with word processing. They probably have not been to training on Microsoft Office, nor have they learned how to do complex tasks with web editing programs such as Dreamweaver. Instead, digital natives have been quick to take advantage of programs that promise quick results, and they are very comfortable with wizards and templates.
Working between file-sharing and social networking programs is second nature, and they find it to be easy to take advantage of programs such as Flickr (photo file sharing), Picasa (photo organizing), Google video (video uploading), MySpace or LiveJournal (weblog / social networking), and then to organize and group the information using tags in programs such as del.icio.us, then distribute using high-functionality e-mail such as gmail, yahoo mail, or lycos mail. Digital native users are not tied to a desktop computer. Instead, the information and the programs are often mobile, and users find innovative ways to make their equipment work for them, with Smartphones, iPods, laptops, and to a lesser extent, pda and handhelds (such as the Dell Axim).
Because digital natives have less experience with the kinds of software programs that require extremely rigid protocols, and which do not have much tolerance for non-standard behaviors, they are likely to be very frustrated with eLearning programs that do not encourage exploration, and which cannot be customized in order to have a meaningful interaction with fellow students. The eLearning space as envisioned by most learning management systems is likely to feel extremely confining, and there will be a sense of isolation and frustration unless active steps are taken to pro-actively incorporate the kinds of activities and options that are popular and currently used.
Similarly, instructors who are used to being able to create a space that responds to the functions and information sharing needs in the real world will be very frustrated by learning management systems that do not allow any customization. Instructors will want, at the very least, to be able to add their own material, modify discussion topics, upload content, incorporate podcasts and vodcasts, and create a unique look and feel in the interface. The monitoring and activity-monitoring reports that the software companies promote as key “value adds” are likely to leave the average instructor completely uninterested. They would be more interested in the kinds of traffic reports generated by services such as feedburner and statcounter.
I’ve noticed that “digital native” is not really a matter of age group. It really has more to do with access and opportunity, which then translate to “time with the toys.” That’s a fairly fey way to say that becoming “fluent” in technology has a great deal to do with amount of time one spends actually using and exploring the digital devices, which include computers, games, telephones, mp3 players, smartphones, and devices of all kinds.
What is perhaps the most poignant about this is that children and young adults who do not have access to the equipment are doubly penalized. They are assumed to be a part of the “digital native” group, so are treated as though they have been exposed to the equipment. Further, they are not given the kinds of scaffolding they need to be able to use the equipment once they have access to it, since it is assumed that they already know how to use them.
The key to me is not to develop courses that accommodate one type of learner or another. The most important factor is to find a way to incorporate the behaviors and values of real users of all ages. Until that occurs, the eLearning space will seem clunky, irrelevant, and at least two generations behind.
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