digital+natives

What on earth //**ARE**// digital natives, you ask??
=__You can't be my teacher.__= //If you don't know the internet you can't be my teacher, I need someone who knows what I know. Meet me on the web, at least half way. Teachers today need to be literate to relate to digital natives.// media type="youtube" key="0VSymMbMYHA" height="315" width="420" []


 *  __Digital natives__ are people who have been born into the era where new digital technology is commonly used in everyday life. For example, someone born in the year 2005 who would grow up learning about and using Google, cell phones, Youtube, digital cameras and camcorders, satellite radio and television, iPods, Xbox 360, etc, quite like any child from any era would grow up learning about and using their first language. **


 *  __Digital immigrants__ are another story. **


 * Digital immigrants are the opposite of digital natives : people who grew up before digital technology became an infused, regular part of each day. Digital immigrants are those who have learned about the new technology later, like those who learn a second language in the middle of their life. These people were not raised knowing how to use cell phones and computers like digital natives. **


 * These two types of people are different, especially when considering how they operate within a classroom environment. Because digital natives are capable of using technology in ways that digital immigrants may think of as impossible, they should be encouraged to use it in __c r e a <span style="color: #ff9600; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">t <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">i <span style="color: #fa26f4; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">v <span style="color: #0087ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">e __ ways. By choosing the activity and exercising one's creativity, one learns in the way that works best for them personally. Although many teachers still ignore new technology, <span style="color: #0724dc; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">digital natives are creative, and need <span style="color: #dd950b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">digital immigrant teachers that understand and allow them to reach their potential with the tools they are interested in and enthusiastic about. **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Barbara Combes conducted a study on and discusses the importance of teaching technological skills in schools: **

The results of this research study indicate that a generation of young people who are digital natives is a perception rather than a reality. Schools have already failed the Net/Generation Y, since they have not provided in-depth teaching on how to develop the skills necessary to use electronic resources and the Internet when seeking information. Teacher Librarians (TLs) have traditionally been the keepers of the information skills toolkit and conducted ‘library lessons’ in isolation. To change the culture of use now evident amongst the Net/Gen Y, TLs must take on a new role and assist teachers in the design of curriculum that is resource based and embeds the use of technology and information literacy skills across the curriculum. To prepare citizens of the future who are empowered and able to navigate the information landscape of the twenty-first century, educationalists need to accept that this landscape and the technologies that help to create it, have had, and continue to have a profound effect on all aspects of our lives. The following quote from Donohew, Tipton and Harvey in 1978 is now more relevant than ever before: Information seeking must be one of our most fundamental methods for coping with our environment. The strategies we learn to use in gathering information may turn out to be far more important in the long run than specific pieces of knowledge we may pick up in our formal education and then soon forget as we go  about wrestling with our day-to-day problems (Donohew, Tipton & Harvey, 1978,  cited in Case, 2002, p. 17).


 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">That is why it is important for teachers to work hard at integrating digital technology into their lesson plans and assignments and using their creativity to find challenges for these capable and intelligent digital natives. **

Combes, Barbara. "Digital Natives Or Digital Refugees? Why we have Failed Gen Y?" //International Association of School Librarianship.Selected Papers from the// //...Annual Conference// (2009): 1,1-12. //CBCA Complete.// Web. 14 Oct. 2011.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Works Cited: **