1. The Digital Native and
The Digital Immigrant:
Bridging the Gap
between Academic
Advisors and Students
in the 21st Century
2. History of Academic
Advising (we have come a
long way) (the colonial
th th
During the 17 and 18 centuries
period) the president of the university and
eventually the faculty looked into the overall
development of the individual, the idea was to
create the perfect gentleman.
3. Academic Advising in 21st
Century
Advising Web Sites
Email
Instant Messaging
Social Networking Sites
Podcasts
Cell Phones
Blogs
Second life
4. Change has not been easy
!
Even though students have moved into the 21st
century, the education system has remained in
the 20th century
Fortunately or Unfortunately the students of the
21st century are no longer our little versions
(Prensky 2007)
Today’s students as coined by Marc Prensky in
2001 are the Digital Natives
5. Digital Natives?
The Digital Natives are native speakers of the digital
language of computers, video games, Internet and who
use technological tools as extensions of their bodies and
minds, fluidly incorporating them into their daily routines
(Prensky 2005)
Before leaving college, digital natives (students) have on
average:
• seen 500,000 commercials,
• sent/received 200,000 emails or messages
• have spent 10,000 hours playing videogames
• have spent 20,000 hours watching TV
• have spent less than 5,000 hours reading books
(Prensky 2001)
6. Digital Natives?
Digital Native characteristics (Prensky, 2001)
- parallel process and multitask
- prefer graphics before text
- thrive on instant gratification and rewards
- have little patience for lectures, step-by-step
logic, and “tell-test” instruction.
7. Digital Immigrants?
The digital Immigrants are the educators and
advisors who were not born into the digital world,
but adopted many or most aspects of the new
technology
The digital Immigrants even though have tried to
adapt to their new environment, they do end up
retaining their “accent” (Prensky 2001)
8. Digital Immigrants?
Have very little appreciation for the new skills
that natives have acquired through years of
interaction and practice
Don’t believe their students can learn
successfully while watching TV or listening to
music
Thinking that learning can’t be fun
Assume that the methodology that worked for
them will work for their students as well
9. “Accent”
If you print out your email, …
If you bring people into your office to see an
interesting website vs. emailing a URL, …
If you make a phone call to check if someone got
your email, …
10. Differences: Natives VS
Immigrants
Processing Information
Multitasking
Sense of Identity
Legacy versus Future Learning
11. Processing Information
Digital Natives retrieve information and
communicate with their peers very quickly
(Prensky 2001)
Digital immigrants often take the longer route, be
it verifying with their peers what they
communicated technologically via Facebook or
texting with face-to-face confirmation
12. Multitasking
Digital Immigrants one step at a time, is often the
norm through a linear and logical progression
Digital Natives can study with the TV on their
IPod blasting in one ear; they practice
multitasking almost on a daily basis
(Cunningham 2007)
13. Sense of Identity
Digital Natives use technology as an extension of
their bodies
Digital Immigrants use technology to reach
someone or to set up a face-to-face meeting
14. Legacy VS Future Learning
Legacy content includes reading, writing,
arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the
writings and ideas of the past- all of your
traditional curriculum (Prensky 2001)
Future content is surprisingly not just digital and
technological, while it includes software, robotics,
nanotechnology etc., it also includes the ethics,
politics, sociology, languages and other things
that go with them (Prensky 2001)
15. How so different?
The brain constantly reorganizes itself all our
child and adult lives, a phenomenon technically
known as neuroplasticity (Prensky 2001) (For
instance: Researchers found that an additional
language learned later in life goes into a different
place in the brain than the language or
languages learned as children)
Malleability: the people who grow up in different
cultures do not think about different things, they
actually think differently, the environment and
culture in which people are raised affects and
even determines many of their thought
processes (Prensky 2001)
16. How should the digital
immigrants bridge this
gap?
Move out of our comfort zone and meet them in
the middle
Laugh at our “accents”
Collaborating with students and take their
feedback into perspective
Being flexible in our organization
17. What the future beholds?
The probable evolution of digital immigrants into
Homo sapiens digital is what the future beholds,
they will differ from the digital immigrants since
they will accept digital enhancement as an
integral fact of human existence, thus leading to
digital wisdom (Prensky 2009)
The gap between Digital Immigrants and Digital
Natives will be reduced by Digital
enhancement. In fact, at our own pace we are
all moving, by fits and starts towards it….
18. References
Cunningham, B. (2007). Digital Native or Digital Immigrant, Which Language Do You Speak? Retrieved from NACADA
Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Digital-
Natives.htm
Prensky, Marc. (October, 2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved from
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
Presnky, Marc. (2001) Do they really think different y? Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-
%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
Prensky, Marc. (December, 2005) Listen to the Natives. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-
%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
Prensky, Marc. (2007) To Educate, We Must Listen. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-
To_Educate,We_Must_Listen.pdf
Prensky, Marc. (July, 2007) Changing Paradigms. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-
ChangingParadigms-01-EdTech.pdf
Prensky, Marc. (2009) Digital Wisdom (H. Sapiens Digital)- Moving beyond Natives and Immigrants. Retrieved from
http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol5_issue3/H._Sapiens_Digital-
__From_Digital_Immigrants_and_Digital_Natives_to_Digital_Wisdom.pdf
