After the reading of Prensky's article on
Digital Natives and Immigrants, I continued to look for more explanations on
this generational gap created by the constant progress of
technology. In my research, I came across some entries that talked about the
evolution of the human brain due to the introduction of technology in our daily
life. In fact, there is a whole book dedicated to the neurological
considerations of this evolution called "iBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind" written by Dr.
Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan. Though couldn’t find and read the whole book online
(an irrefutable proof I am a digital immigrant), I was able to read some
preview pages and it seems to give remarkable insights
into the neurological considerations of the consequences that the use of
technology has had in the human brain, and the differences between a Digital Immigrant’s
brain and a Digital Native’s one. There is a generational gap then, which is
not only a matter of who knows better how to deal with technology but a matter
of human evolution; digital natives are the future, a step-forward in the
evolutionary chain. This does not mean, however, that Digital Immigrants cannot
adapt to the new waves of technological boom; this means they need to put a
greater effort into understanding and keeping up with all the technological
tools and developments since their brains are not biologically programmed to
decode technology as Digital Native’s is. There is yet one more meaning in these
words: both Digital Natives and Immigrants have advantages and disadvantages as
there are different areas in their brains that are more or less developed according
to each generation’s characteristics.
Of course, the generational gap causes
misunderstandings between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Moreover,
there are times when their irreconcilable differences cause major problems, as
when the two generations meet at the classroom. Many are the challenges an immigrant
teacher faces when trying to teach a Digital Native; when trying to understand
the way in which he or she learns, which is different from his/her own’s.
When trying to understand better all these
considerations and differences between the generations I found the blog of a
very young teacher from Toronto Canada who made two interesting entries titled:
"Future Minds Part I: Brain evolution 101 for parents and teachers",
and "Future Minds Part II: The good and the bad of our evolving brains",
in which she treated the topic of digital natives and immigrants, and the
characteristics of digital natives’ brain and neurological functioning
supporting her ideas on the notions discussed in the book I mentioned before.
In spite of a few grammatical mistakes and
not having official endorsement, the entries (specifically the second one)
contain some considerations about the way in which the digital natives’ brains
work; considerations that are important for us future teachers, especially for
those of us that are digital immigrants and need to grasp at all tools and
information available to plan the best way to get to and engage the digital
native students. 
Hi Marion! I really liked how you approached this subject, I never really thought that this change may be biological as well as cognitive. It is a relly interesting way of looking at it!
ResponderEliminarHi marion! When reading what you wrote about this differences about digital natives and immigrants brains,it makes me connect this with what happen also when we talk about the learning of a second language in psycho-linguistics. Children and adults both have different advantages as regards the learning of a second language (children in fluency, adults in other areas). We always talked about the differences that exist between children and adults when learning something. We say it is not the same to learn to drive,read ,etc when being young than when when being adults , since it tends to be more difficult, though not impossible. Thus, I consider of great importance to be aware, as teachers, that this differences have to do with the way our brain functions depending on different factors such as age, previous contact with technology,etc.
ResponderEliminar