Digital Indigenous People:
What are the requirements of the new generation of students? Training at a critical crossroads - Part I
By Dimitra Tsiophela
SUMMARY
In this work, teachers are invited to become acquainted with the first generation of pupils born and raised in the digital world. This generation has not only a greater ability to exploit new technologies but has also developed different ways of thinking, communicating and collaborating. This has prompted the interest of scientists, who are studying the influence of intensive digital technology on brain development and functions.
Research has shown that these "digital" brains develop new skills and use new learning techniques, but at the same time they tend to forget what skills abort with this new way of life. Future changes to human thinking, the structure of society and the concepts of education and learning are commented. Emphasis is placed on the need to adapt teaching methods to these new circumstances, which are imposed by the needs of tomorrow's students.
KEYWORDS: Digital Indigenous, Digital Technology, Education
IMPORT
We see them everywhere. They are the children who wear headphones on their ears, who communicate with text messages, who type faster than us and who know how to fix our computer when it gets stuck. They are all born after 1980, when the first "social" technologies were born. In addition to their police ID, they have many others: on Facebook, in e-mail, in Second Life, on YouTube, in every online game, in their blogs, in Instant Messaging programs. Each of these children "exists" in the digital world with more than one identity, "wearing" at any time the character and appearance he desires. He has hundreds of friends, all over the world, other real and other digital, and can communicate with everyone at the same time. These are the "Digital Indigenous".
The term "Digital Natives" (Digital Natives) [8] was first used in 2001 by Marc Prensky to describe the new generation of people who, having integrated technology into their lives from the moment they were born, better understand the concepts related to it . At the opposite end are the "Digital Immigrants"[10], i.e. those born before 1980 (the definition refers to the USA, where the term originates - in Greece we can talk about Digital Natives born from 1990 and later), who are required to adapt to the language, manners and customs of the natives. Today's students, having grown up under different circumstances, have completely different requirements in the classroom, compared to us elders. They are much more easily offended, cannot stand lecture-style teaching and hate the blackboard. They want the information to be presented using images, sounds and movement, to have intensity, speed and interest. This is to be expected, considering the technology they use in their daily lives.
EDUCATION IN A CRITICAL CROSS-BORDER
The first generation of "Digital Natives", i.e. children who were born and raised in the digital world, have come of age and soon our world will be reshaped in their image and likeness. The economy, politics, culture, and even the structure of family life will be forever transformed. In this critical historical moment, teachers are called upon to adapt their course so that it meets the demands and needs of this new generation of students[9]. In order to communicate with students, they come into contact for the first time with terms such as Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Digital stories, Webquests, Games/simulations and are asked to integrate all modern means of management, presentation and exchange of information in the educational procedure. In many US schools, social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have been employed to ensure children's participation in class, while the use of smart phones (such as i-phones) and teachers often encourage children to use them to search for information online.
In our country, this effort is now taking its first steps, with the supply of equipment to schools and the training of teachers in New Technologies. For most teachers, however, using Web 2.0 tools is still a nightmare and for a few, usually younger in age, exhausts himself in Powerpoint presentation of the lesson and chaotic search for information on the internet. Nevertheless, being behind the most technologically advanced countries, such as the United States for example, gives us a significant advantage: We can today to know the future results of Digital Media integration in education, through scientific research in countries where this process has already begun for many years. We are given the opportunity to peek into the future of education, to better understand how our students change and their needs, and to know in advance the negative effects of excessive or misuse of digital technology.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CHANGES THE HUMAN CAPITAL
The modern explosion of digital technology does not only change the way we live and communicate, but it also changes rapidly and deeply our brains [1]. The daily exposure to it - computers, smart mobiles, video games, search engines - activates brain cell changes and neurotransmitter release, gradually building new neural pathways in our brains while weakening old ones. We may not realize the changes in our neural networks, but they become permanent with frequent repetition. This evolutionary brain process has occurred within a generation and can be one of the most unexpected other and critical developments in human history.
The new generation's brain is now working differently and developing some new features (see Table 1) that people did not have until today [18], [19]. We are witnessing the beginning of a deep stroke between younger and older minds - within a single generation. What used to be the generation gap, separating the values, music and habits of young people from those of their parents, has now become a huge division, affecting two different cultures.
| Conventional speed |
Vs |
Spasmodic motion |
| Linear processing | Parallel processing | |
| Linear thinking | Random access | |
| First the text | First the graphics | |
| Everyone on his own | All interconnected | |
| Passivity | Energy | |
| Patience | Direct reward | |
| Realism | Imagination | |
| Technology as an enemy | Technology as a friend |
Table 1: The learning characteristics of the "Digital Indigenous", in contrast to those of students of previous generations.
WHAT TO OBTAIN THE TRAINING INSTRUMENTS IN THE CLASS
Picture 1: Results of a follow-up study for three websites. Users looked more at the red areas, less yellow and little blue. They did not look at the gray areas at all.
· Neglect of social skills: As the mind focuses on new technological skills, it moves away from the fundamental social. For every 1 time we spend on the computer, the traditional face to face interaction decreases by 30 minutes. By weakening neural networks that control human contact, we tend to misinterpret or even confuse non-verbal messages.
· Different way to read text: Online reading habits have discovered something called the "F Form Template for Internet Content Reading" [4]. It is the technique of reading horizontally along the first few lines, then up to the middle for a few lines and finally the other vertices to the end of the page
· Speed and peripheral vision: Using digital technologies sharpen some cognitive abilities. He learns to react more quickly to visual stimuli and improves many forms of attention, especially the ability to watch images in his peripheral vision. It develops more capacity to run large amounts of information and decides what is important and what is not.
· Parallel processing Students find the TV awesely boring. 1 / 3 of young people use some other means (usually the internet) while watching TV. Even junior high school students are constantly being processed. They download music to the ipod and send sms to their friends while they are doing their lessons.
· Increased intelligence: The digital evolution of our brains can increase our intelligence. The. IQ average values are rising steadily [16] as digital culture evolves and the ability to do multitasking [17] without errors is increasing.
· Craving for immediate reward: Digital Indigenous people do parallel processing with ease and their access to visual and auditory stimuli has programmed their brains to crave instant reward [24]. They have shorter intervals of attention, especially towards traditional forms of learning.
· Anxiety and attention disorders: But research shows that excessive parallel treatment can lead to an increase in anxiety, disturbance of attention, but also a reduction in performance. Often teachers complain that young people belonging to the generation of parallel processing are less efficient in their lessons.
· Difficulty generalizing: Some scientists argue that chronic and intense parallel treatment may even delay the proper development of the 23, that is, the brain that helps us see the general picture, postpone the reward, think about it in general, we are planning the future.
· DAN: Chronic exposure to technologies such as television, video games, and computers increases the risk of Attention Deficit Disorder [27], [28]. Research from Brown University has shown that teens who play online or console games for more than an hour a day have more ADHD symptoms than those who do not. But also neuroscientist Susan Greenfield [12] warns that texting, Facebook and other forms of direct communication can lead to an increase in attention deficit disorders.
· Other Health Problems: Keeping children awake as they slowly play video games, surfing the internet and sending messages can lead to learning difficulties, sudden mood swings, childhood anxiety [25,] [30] and depression [11].
· Difficulties in grammar and syntax: "T knc? vrm p. 3rc tpt? Ohi "means" What are you doing? I'm bored a lot. Do you know anything? No". This is a typical example of a Facebook or mobile phone dialogue (in Greek). Teachers and philologists in Greece and abroad often complain that students' performance in spelling and syntax is constantly getting worse. Combined with the fact that an increasing proportion of young people read books for pleasure [20] every year fewer and fewer students are able to compose a proper paragraph on their own.
· Lesser accuracy: Bad spelling seems to be the least of the problems caused by overuse of messages. Research done in Australia[5] shows that texting teaches young people to be faster but also less accurate. Especially the system word prediction (the so-called T9), scientists say, is easy to use, but terribly inaccurate. With frequent use, texting can rewire a child's brain, making them more careless. According to epidemiologist Michael Abramson [5], young people who use their cell phones a lot make more mistakes in exercises that require memory, concentration periods and learning. "We suspect it's an acquired pattern of behavior," he says.
Digital Indigenous:
What are the requirements of the new generation of students? Training at a Critical Crossroad - Part II
IS THE DIGITAL FRIEND SO SMOKED?
This question has been a point of contention for American scientists in recent years. Opinions differ to such an extent that some describe Digital Indigenous people as the smartest generation of people and others as the smartest ever. John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, head of the Digital Media Project, a multidimensional research project that studies the transition from offline / analogue to networked / digital media, write in their book "Born Digital: Understanding first generation of Digital Indigenous people ”[2]:
"Digital Indigenous people are incredibly creative. It is impossible to say whether they are more or less creative than previous generations, but one thing is certain: They express themselves creatively in ways very different from those used by their parents at the same age. Many of them perceive information as something malleable, something they can control and reshape in new and exciting ways. This could be from editing a MySpace profile or a Wikipedia entry, making a movie or an online video, or downloading a song — legally or not. Whether they have realized it or not, they have reached the point of having control over their cultural environment that has no precedent.".
On the contrary, the Mark Bauerlein in his book with the provocative title "The Foolish Generation" [3] writes:
"The dawn of the digital age once gave birth to hope: The Internet, e-mail, blogs, interactive and surreal video games promised to produce a generation of smarter, more informed, more spiritually educated children. Terms such as "informationhighway" and "knowledge economy" entered the dictionary and we concluded that teenagers would use their know-how and understanding of technology to lead the way in this new age of information. That was the promise. But the enlightenment did not happen. According to recent reports from government agencies, organizations, polling companies and academics, most young people in the US they do not read literature (nor do they know exactly how to do it), nor do they work reliably, nor do they visit cultural institutions (of any kind), nor do they vote (most do not understand a simple ballot paper). They cannot explain basic scientific methods, narrate milestones in the history of the country or name any of the politicians who represent them. The only thing they are superior to is "among themselves". They spend an incredible amount of time sending stories, photos, songs and texts electronically back and forth, enjoying the attention of their online friends and living in a world of silly teasing and crafty images. ”
It is a fact that the revolution of digital technology has rushed us into a state of constant partial attention. This means being constantly busy, having open tabs with anything [29], without really concentrating on anything [22].
CONCLUSIONS
Wherever the truth is, it is a fact that teachers are now invited not only to be trained so that they can adapt their lesson to the requirements of the Digital Generation of students, but also face a number of negative consequences of integrating high technology into our lives such as hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, depression and paralysis, and now need to be prepared for them as well.
They still have to remember that there may be availability of social networks, e-mail and instant messaging, but these ways of communication lack the emotional warmth of direct human contact and often worsen the sense of isolation of people. Also, the high technology revolution has contributed to many forms of anxiety, from chronic generalized disorders to panic attacks that make the person practically disabled.
Digital Indigenous people live most of their lives online, without separating online from offline. Instead of treating their digital identity and real-world identity as separate things, they have only one (with representations in two, three or more spaces). They do not consider hybrid lives to be curious. Through social networks, they connect, talk and share photos with friends from all over the world. They can even collaborate creatively or politically in ways that would have been impossible thirty years ago. But in this process of relentless connection, the essence of relationships - even what it means to be "friends" with someone - changes. Online friendships are based very much on the same elements as traditional friendships - common interests, frequent interaction, etc. - but they also have a very different feature: They often disappear, it is easy to get in and out of them, without even saying goodbye. And they may also be persistent in ways we do not yet understand.
The brain of the person growing up in video games [21] and the virtual digital world is used to saying: "I can forsake that time I want from what I do" and "I want a reward here and now! I do not like the long-term effort that will compensate me in the distant future ". For a person who is accustomed to reading according to the F-standard, it is very difficult to read even one page of a book giving the necessary attention to the whole text. These are all factors that affect children's behavior and performance in the classroom and teachers should now take them into account. "We have a brain that is open and still changing and a technology that requires us to become faster and more automatic. The natural consequence of this is to increase the likelihood of making mistakes " says Laura-Ann Petitto, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, a pioneer in research into speech disorders.
All of the above is part of the new educational reality. And yet, the teacher gives the student such a task: “Go to Google, typed in the words, downloaded three related websites, cut and pasted a few pieces into a new document, added the transitions, printed it out and turned it in." The new learning model is that of information retrieval and not of knowledge. The material goes from the internet directly to the worksheet, without going through the minds of the students. And yet the educational world does not see the danger in these developments and adapts the concept of education to the new reality, which is shaped by how the new generation learns (and does not learn), instead of trying to adapt children to stable standards of knowledge and learning ", comments J. Bowman [15].
The pessimistic scenario says that we are downgrading our verbal and computing skills to "low level knowledge", while upgrading our ability to gather information, recognize patterns and control space, which is enhanced by the many hours in front of the computer screen. This will be the first step in a series of relegations, which will follow the Digital Indigenous to High School and University, until everyone leaves the educational process with a PhD in Googling. The optimistic script says how the Digital Age generation will be the most creative and communicative of all. It will change the world and culture in ways we never imagined and give equal opportunities to more people by providing free and unrestricted access to all kinds of information.
Whatever the reality, however, one is certain: the new world of high technology affects how young people develop their sense I and aof the island in the world [31]. The ability to immerse yourself in the imaginary universe of a game or its power to be a few keystrokes away from any of its friends on the planet, shapes - positively or negatively - its identity and self-esteem. And these are two basic elements that dictate his actions and determine his humanity.
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Published with the author's permission.
Dimitra Tsiopela
