How Do Digital Students Think and How Do They Differ from Students of Before
Digital students are students whose brains have become accustomed to digital media, such as playing computer games, listening to music on Ipods and looking at computer screens for lengthy times. Many of them have today evolved from sitting in front of screens to using handheld devices to send e mails, text messages and send instant messages. Some of them even talk to each other in bytes. In fact this generation is called the digital generation.
Students of today live in a very different world from the world previous generations lived in. They communicate with their peers and teachers via computers, i.e. social networks. The virtual world together with its ups and downs is at their finger tips. “Apple computer defines these digital students or digital kids as kids who are; Hyper communicators, multi taskers and goal orientated.” (Shelly, Gunter & Gunter, 2010, Pg 15). Digital students think differently (critical thinking), absorb and process information differently compared to previous generations’ students.
Today students have not just changed from past students by changing their clothing, hair styles and their individuality. They have grown up with new technology which changes rapidly. We grew up in a stable and slow changing environment. It is now clear that as a result of their new and different world their ways of thinking, absorbing their teachers’ information and processing it is very different from how past generations performed these tasks. Besides calling them digital natives and teaches digital immigrants, we refer to them as digital kids or students.
According to an article by Marc Prensky (2001) he states that research done by social psychologists shows that people who grow up in different cultures do not just think about different things, they actively think differently. The environment and culture in which people are raised affects and even determines many of their thought processes. Children raised with computer develop hypertext
Students of today live in a very different world from the world previous generations lived in. They communicate with their peers and teachers via computers, i.e. social networks. The virtual world together with its ups and downs is at their finger tips. “Apple computer defines these digital students or digital kids as kids who are; Hyper communicators, multi taskers and goal orientated.” (Shelly, Gunter & Gunter, 2010, Pg 15). Digital students think differently (critical thinking), absorb and process information differently compared to previous generations’ students.
Today students have not just changed from past students by changing their clothing, hair styles and their individuality. They have grown up with new technology which changes rapidly. We grew up in a stable and slow changing environment. It is now clear that as a result of their new and different world their ways of thinking, absorbing their teachers’ information and processing it is very different from how past generations performed these tasks. Besides calling them digital natives and teaches digital immigrants, we refer to them as digital kids or students.
According to an article by Marc Prensky (2001) he states that research done by social psychologists shows that people who grow up in different cultures do not just think about different things, they actively think differently. The environment and culture in which people are raised affects and even determines many of their thought processes. Children raised with computer develop hypertext