D-Generation

After taking some time to research a broad topic of diversity among technology participants, I came across a very enlightening article that seemed worthy of mentioning. As we had discussed in my class earlier last week, topics can either have deductive or inductive conclusions. Some sources are more credible than others depending on the authors’ or researchers’ credentials, if observations or study/tests were done, the results, and of course the sample size. The article I came across is by Marc Prensky, an internationally known writer concentrated on the topic of education and learning.

The article titled “Digital Natives, Digital immigrants” focused on the digital era and the generation that has grown with it. He describes what he calls the D-Gen (digital generation) and the Digital immigrants who aren’t necessarily individuals with different country origins, but the individuals born outside of this so called D-gen. The huge difference between these two groups is how they interact and associate technology in everyday life. The individuals considered a part of the D-Gen group are those in Kindergarten to College level students. They are categorized under this generation because they have grown up with the 20th century digital age. Technology has always been integrated into their lives while the digital immigrants had to adapt and transition over.

Prensky’s article seems to do a good job in providing examples and sources to support his claims. He provides several comments and opinions from both groups. He also includes claims from other studies such as Dr. Bruce Perry from Baylor College Medicine whose study concluded that there has been a change in thinking patterns from the digital immigrants group to the digital natives and predicts that this could lead to different brain structures in the future for the D-gen.

With the amount of information provided this article proves to be a good source. After reading the article it was noted that Prensky’s had an inductive conclusion. He had observed our generation of technology natives and the digital immigrants and came upon the conclusion that the students of the digital native group have changed in a completely new way that can no longer be reversed. Our change is not anything alike to the changes seen before our generation from clothing or taste in music. Instead it has been a change in how we process information and our ability to do so at a different speed.