Digital Natives

Watching Julie Evans from Project Tomorrow - NetDay at the EDUCAUSE 2007 was interesting and relevant to the research I have been doing for the ED 400 project as my group is working on question 2 - higher ed goes completely online. Julie Evans shares some great stuff that gets me thinking about what to expect in 2020 - and I also notice that the talk is already about out of date. I mean, who uses Myspace anymore? Facebook is a better buzz word when talking about social networking - everyone knows that MySpace is best for music, not so much for socializing. Julie Evans introduced to me the term digital natives. She shared that it will be 5 to 7 years, probably more like 5 now since the talk is three years old, until we who work in higher ed will feel the true impact of the digital natives. Our students currently in college didn't have as much technology in elementary school as the kids do now in those grades. This fits with what I have been finding in the research about the students will soon expect, heck, demand, more flexibility with when they want to learn and how. I think of my 17 year old who a couple of years ago was in a math class that utilized an online math tutoring program. He could go to a website and he could listen to instruction on how to tackle a math program that was part of his homework assignment. Believe me, this was helpful as I was a Sociology major and could be of no help! I think Spencer is on the brink of that digital native and that my 13 year old will be right in there with being ready and wanting more use of technology in the classroom - or having class outside the traditional classroom. This is big news that our brick (UCSB) better thinking about the click! My now 13 year old was making friends online as early at 8 years old as he played online games - and only just left the computer where he loyally played World of WarCraft (WOW) and had many online friends for his bike - a new found freedom of roaming the neighborhood. Even though he has traded WOW for the face to face social life and his bike, he is jumping on to Facebook when he gets home and meets the expectation of the typical teenager by averaging over 2,000 text messages a month (thank goodness for the unlimited text message option with Verizon!). As Julie Evans labels us "older" folks - we are digital immigrants! I'm paying attention to my kids and what they are doing in hopes this will help me navigate what to expect in my future work with college students!