Week 8 blog

Digital Immigration is based on two key elements. These are digital natives and digital immigrants.

 Digital natives are those of us who have grown up in the digital world; those of us lucky enough to have access to the Internet, or ‘Sky’ television. It is a world of free reign and random intrusion, much like hypertext. For example, we can pick which channel we want to pick out of the 900 or so available to us on ‘Sky’, not flick through every single one until we find something we like. I say ‘we’ as I am included in this very system. We are now natives in our digital surroundings, with each of us knowing how to use a mobile phone, or a laptop.

 This is in stark contrast to digital immigrants, who are those who have not been born into a digital age, but have in later life, adopted it to be their own. These have however become a very powerful agent for propriety on the Internet. Dubbed as ‘the silver surfers’ they have become one of the leading forces in many markets across the Internet. For example, Amazon.com, relies on its ‘silver surfers’ to gain as much money as it does. It is safe to assume that most digital immigrants are of the older generation and will therefore be in safe jobs with a steady income, therefore able to spend disposable cash on things they may like such as CD’s. The idea of buying CD’s to a digital native could be seen as quite old hat. [Not to me, I can’t get enough of the buggers! Probably the reason I have no money!] But to many of my native friends have never bought a CD and have downloaded every song they own, or got it from me! So in a question to who cares about digital immigration, most major companies have now accommodated for this market.

 Websites that involve digital immigration:

 http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

 This is part of an academic piece by Prensky. It shows how in the education field the idea of digital immigration can be used to influence and educate students on terms that they understand more. It says a lot about computer games and how these are very influential in terms of education. It raises the debate of whether digital immigrants adopt native ways in education. He rationalises that it will be beneficial to the native student to be taught in such a way that they will understand, for example in the medium of a game or graphic.

 http://www.mrstacey.org.uk/teaching/?p=157

 This also focuses on a teaching point of view. It however denounces the idea of digital natives and immigrants being solely dependant on age. He states that the amount of technology and our curiosity towards this technology more shows if we are digital natives or immigrants. If we strive to learn new things about a technology then we are more likely to be digital natives than immigrants.

 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/

 This focuses solely on digital natives. It gives a scenario of a girl scout in America, using the Internet to sell cookies to the local public. This has however been banned as it goes against the traditional methods of door- to- door sales. This however links to the 1^st websites argument. This girls’ digital native ways are being forced out by the older digital immigrant girl-guide leaders. If a girl guide is savvy enough to employ the Internet as a tool for sales, then this should be applauded. It shows good entrepreneurship and good skills for thinking outside of the box, which are good things in terms of development in young girls.

 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/2008/09/24/internet-draws-masses-for-silence-dance-experiment/

 This article investigates the new idea of ‘flash mobs’, made possible through the Internet. They imply that this is helped by the digital natives all being online and talking about it to their other native friends. It gains popularity and following through all the natives mooting. This allows natives to show off their skills with technology. Firstly by finding out about it by surfing the web, then telling everyone about it through an online medium such as a blog or facebook. Then, when they are there, it is up to their Ipods’ or portable music devices to give them the audio stimulus to start dancing, whilst filming the whole event on a mobile phone or video camera. 4 or 5 different technologies for just one event: a digital natives dream.

 http://borndigitalbook.com/about.php

 This is a blurb from a book written all about digital natives called ‘Born Digital, Understanding the first generation of digital natives’. It states that the society will change due to technology and the use of it to digital natives. It claims that even things such as family life will be different in the future because of the influx in our lives. They claim that digital immigrants see natives as very narrow-minded in their view of certain things. This could be quite a narrow-minded assumption in turn. It is impossible to say what everyone is like, and especially about digital natives who could be seen to be the most broad-minded thinkers in the technological field. These are the future of our world and have been gifted the opportunity to shape what the future will be like. So if narrow-mindedness is a feature of digital natives, then we are all in for a rocky road in the not too distant future.