On the Horizon Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1 Marc Prensky, Article information: To cite this document: Marc Prensky, (2001) "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1", On the Horizon, Vol. 9 Issue: 5,pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1108/10748120110424816 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816 Downloaded on: 29 March 2017, At: 12:03 (PT) References: this document contains references to 0 other documents. To copy this document: [email protected] The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 34733 times since 2006* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: (2001),"On the Horizon broadens its horizons – to publish may be to perish?", On the Horizon, Vol. 9 Iss 5 pp. 2-3 http:// dx.doi.org/10.1108/10748120110734687 (2011),"Digital natives and digital immigrants: getting to know each other", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 43 Iss 7 pp. 460-466 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197851111171890 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by All users group For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Downloaded by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile At 12:03 29 March 2017 (PT) *Related content and download information correct at time of download. O N the ORIZON THE STRATEGIHC PLANNING RESOURCE FOR EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS September/October 2001 Volume 9,Number 5 Digital Natives,Digital Immigrants Part 1 Marc Prensky games2train.com and Corporate Gameware LLC [email protected] t is amazing to me how,in all the hoo-ha instant messaging are integral parts of their and debate these days about the decline of lives. education in the USA,we ignore the most It is now clear that,as a result ofthis IN THIS ISSUE: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants fundamental of its causes.Our students ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume Park 1 Ihave changed radically.T oday’s students are of their interaction with it,today’ s students Marc Prensky . .1 no longer the people our educational system think and process information fundamentally was designed to teach. differently from their predecessors.These From the Editor Today’s students have not just changed differences go far further and deeper than On the Horizon Broadens its Horizons – To Publish May Be To Perish? incrementally from those of the past, nor most educators suspect or realize.“ Different Tom P.Abeles . .2 simply changed their slang,clothe s,body kinds of experiences lead to different brain adornments,or styles,a s has happened structures,“ says Dr Bruce D.Berry of Baylor Legacy-based Thinking II: Resisting New between generations previously.A really big College of Medicine.As we shall see in the next Tools and Competencies discontinuity has taken place.One might even installment,it is very likely that our students’ Arthur Harkins and George Kubik . .6 call it a “singularity”– an event which changes brains have physically changed – and are A Voice from Pari things so fundamentally that there is absolutely different from ours – as a result of how they Elena Liotta . .10 no going back.This so-called “singularity”is grew up. But whether or not this is literally the arrival and rapid dissemination ofdigital true,we can say with certainty that their Scanning the Environment NextEd Offers Multiple Services for Downloaded by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile At 12:03 29 March 2017 (PT) technology in the last decades of the twentieth thinking patterns have changed.I will get to Hitting Asian Marketplace century. how they have changed in a minute. George Lorenzo . .13 Today’s students – K-12 through college – What should we call these “new”students represent the first generations to grow up of today? Some refer to them as the N-(for Book Reviews with this new technology.They have spent Net)-gen or D-(for digital)-gen.But the most Is it or isn’t it? their entire lives surrounded by and using useful designation I have found for them is Tom Abeles . .15 computers,videogames, digital music players, Digital Natives.Our students today are all video cams,cell phones,and all the other toys “native speakers”of the digital language of and tools of the digital age.T oday’s average computers,video games and the Internet. college grads have spent fewer than 5,000 So what does that make the rest of us? hours of their lives reading,but over 10,000 Those of us who were not born into the hours playing video games (not to mention digital world but have,at some later point in 20,000 hours watching TV).Computer our lives,become fascinated by and adopted games,e-mail, the Internet,cell phones and many or most aspects ofthe new technology continued on page 3 are actively seeking alternatives to distribution of Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants traditional journal articles through a limited number of publishing houses that control rights and are considered Part 1 to be making exceedingly large profits through their continued from page 1 control of the distribution of what is seen,traditionally, as public knowledge.In addition to the academics, are,and always will be,compared with them,Digital scholarly libraries have become concerned,as the Immigrants. proliferation of journals and the rapidly rising costs The importance of the distinction is this:As Digital severely pressure increasingly limited budgets. Immigrants learn – like all immigrants,some better Not only is the academic community faced with than others – to adapt to their environment,they confronting the issues of preprints,online journals and always retain,to some degree,their “accent”, that is increasing numbers of traditional publications,but their foot in the past. The “digital immigrant accent” also the electronic medium adds what has traditionally can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for been fugitive literature or knowledge on the fringe. information second rather than first,or in reading the This includes,in particular,materials from conferences, manual for a program rather than assuming that the workshops and seminars that in the past have program itself will teach us to use it.T oday’s older folk languished in the archives ofsmall,specialized were “socialized”differently from their kids,and are associations and scholarly societies.Often relegated to now in the process of learning a new language.And a obscure collections or recast for traditional venues, language learned later in life,scientists tell us,goes into they now are becoming available through the Internet a different part of the brain. in a variety of formats. The rise of semantic search engines makes these A language learned later in life, visible to the larger community of researchers and students,yet one cannot ascertain whether these are scientists tell us, goes into a different critical or serve only to increase the information part of the brain overload.W e are facing a world where the cost per bit of information is getting cheaper,while the cost of a useful bit may be exceedingly costly.In such a world, There are hundreds of examples of the digital immigrant where fiscal resources are limited, how does The accent.They include printing out your e-mail (or having Academy cope? your secretary print it out for you – an even “thicker” Additionally,c ampuses,many ofwhich have accent);needing to print out a document written on the embraced the delivery of knowledge through a variety computer in order to edit it (rather than just editing on of IT products and processes,including the Internet, the screen);and bringing people physically into your are faced with shifting library usage,including office to see an interesting Web site (rather than just decreased use of both the physical space and print sending them the URL).I’ m sure that you can think of resources.There is increasing concern that end users one or two examples of your own without much effort. will seek no further than electronic sources and that My own favorite example is the “Did you get my e-mail?” the traditional social functions of a campus library phone call.Those of us who are Digital Immigrants can, may yield to lessons learned from the larger booksellers and should, laugh at ourselves and our “accent.” with their coffee-houses. But this is not just a joke.It’ s very serious,because Downloaded by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile At 12:03 29 March 2017 (PT) Thus, OTH itself becomes a probe into the venerable the single biggest problem facing education today is publishing institution and a sensor as to what might lie that our Digital Immigrant instructors,who speak an ahead in the arena of academic publishing.What, outdated language (that of the pre-digital age),are indeed,are the implications for The Academy? What is struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely the function