April--Understanding+Digital+Children+Report

“Understanding Digital Children (Dks)” Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape The most accurate way to describe the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants is that digital natives are fundamentally different. They are different not in only how they mature at faster rates but how they are neurologically different. They are different in how they acquire, process, and use information and especially in how they communicate and interact with others (around the world). Information that once was committed to text is outdated, and therefore digital children are learning the skills to access rapidly changing information digitally.

With the decreased time spent with parents and families, digital children have become active screenagers, spending their time with interactive digital media. (Sadly, this decreased family time has resulted in a shortage of family/parental attention.) The digital revolution means that these children can create relationships easily and effectively through computers. They are just as comfortable with virtual relationships as they are with face-to-face relationships.

These screeagers want the images that they see on the screen to be interactive, not just for passive viewing. They do not want information just to be presented in text, but also in images, sounds, and video all presented in one platform. And they want it at twitch speed.

[|Understanding Digital Children] by: Ian Jukes & Anita Dosaj