Teaching Digital Natives

This generation is coming of age at a unique historical moment tied to a systemic change in culture. According to a study being done by the MacArthur Foundation, their generational identity is tied to their technological identity, which distinguishes them from their elders. New media empowers these "digital natives" to challenge social norms and educational agendas of elders in unique ways. What makes this group unique is that while adults participate, they are not automatically the experts because of their age. Traditional markers of status and authority are erased. Kids are active innovators using digital media rather than static consumers of pop culture or academic knowledge.

Adaptation to teaching the digital youth culture is essential to any learning institution, because there is a growing disparity between how they educate and how this new generation learns. Without adapting new media practices, hypodermic methods of teaching will become less and less effective.

Digital natives live most of their lives online, without distinguishing between the online and the offline. They share the common practice of relating to each other in ways mediated by digital technologies. They don't know anything but a life in which they are constantly connected to others.

We need to mobilize our institutions to envision formal, higher education as part of a continuum of learning within the collaborative, networked environments that students participate in online today. This will not only serve to increase student's interest and motivation, but to reinforce the fact that learning is a lifelong process. Do we believe that learning institutions can continue in their current form? Around the world, learning is continuously happening virtually, globally, and collaboratively.

David Buckingham describes the growing gap between kid's everyday life out of school and the emphasis of many educational systems. The future of conventional learning institutions could be over unless they realize the necessity of both fundamental and foundational change.

The first step toward fundamental change is already in motion. Open source education is becoming more than a concept, its reality has taken hold and great thinkers are making it a priority. Open source course management, open access, collaborative textbooks, and other open source tools break down the limitations of a static curriculum. Students can embrace the capabilities of the Internet for virtual collaboration, viral dissemination, and feedback loops. We are seeing more and more of these web based opportunities with efforts such as Creative Commons and Connexions.

This is just the beginning. We are losing student's interest by presenting them with textbooks and hypodermically presenting information in lectures. By evolving to an ecosystem of education that conforms to the reality they interact with outside of school, we have a better chance at success and participation in their learning process. We need to close Buckingham's "digital divide".