Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

Marc Prensky's idea of digital natives and digital immigrants is fascinating. According to Prensky, digital natives are those who have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using technology-from video games, to TVs, to Internet, to cell phones. Digital Immigrants, he says, are those who were not born into the digital world. Our family got our first computer when I turned 12 but we were one of the few families among my friends that had one.

After reading his articles on the topic ( here & here), I determined that I'm a Digital Native because I grew up surrounded by technology. However, I have some characteristics of a Digital Immigrant, at times, too. I print out all readings from my courses, unless they are over 25 pages. I also print papers and edit to edit it rather than just editing it on the screen. 

I felt very frustrated at the beginning of this online course because almost everything was new to me. I was forced to challenge myself into new technologies that I'd never used before and honestly had very little interest or enthusiasm to do so. However, as time has gone by, I've realized how this digital immigrant in me needs to change for the benefit of my future students. After all, they will need me to incorporate technology into my teaching.

I think part of my frustration with this course was the fact that I didn't know how to use many of the new technology that was introduced. And I think this goes along with not being able to "keep up" with technology. I feel it all moves so fast and you blink your eyes and something new has come out. 

  I am 31 and took quite a few years between my bachelors and my master programs. when i started my master program, I had no idea was google docs was. I felt like I had taken a few years off and suddenly was so far "behind" everyone else in terms of technology.

I disagree that Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants is a generational thing. Instead, I believe it depends on the person. I know plenty of people my parents age who don't have a digital immigrant "accent." I also know a few people my age, in my social group, who don't have a computer or even a smart phone for that matter. 

I completely agree with this PBS Video that says that computers are a privilege that not everyone has access too. People from low-income families who grew up the same time that I grew up do not know how to use much of the technology that I do. And I do not consider myself to be "tech savvy" at all.

Using Podcasts in the Classroom

Using podcasts in the classroom is a great resource for anyone who is learning a new language. Podcasts are audio files or video files that anyone can create on any topic they'd like. I use a Spanish podcast to keep up with my Spanish. I listen to conversations and grammar explanations and podcasts about travel, culture and cooking-all in Spanish. I've noticed I learn more when I'm listening to a podcast in Spanish about a subject  I love. I listen to "News in Slow Spanish" and another podcast for Spanish language learners about travel and culture. These are two topics that I love, so I always anticipate when the new podcast comes out. The more I listen, the more I learn! I want to encourage my ELL's to do the same with an ESL podcast in their free time.




I teach adult refugees and immigrants who have recently moved to the U.S.  For the first time, I started to browse some podcasts for ELLs and so far I've found ESL Pod. This podcast has some great episodes in American English. The topics are great for newly arrived immigrants. One lesson that I found here is about meeting a new neighbor. It is a dialogue between a person who is new to a neighborhood and another neighbor. They speak very slowly and this site also provides a transcript of the conversation, as well. In their conversation, they talk about being new to a neighborhood and how to be involved in a community. They use two word verbs and idioms in this dialogue. My students love to learn idioms and phrasal verbs. So I would use this podcast when teaching phrasal verbs. The topic is relevant, as well because it's about a new neighbor who is settling in to a new place-a perfect topic for newly arrived immigrants and refugees!

Phrasal Verbs used in this episode:

• settle in
• come over
• give you the scoop on..
• give you tips on...
• take a rain check
• stop by

I would pre-teach these phrasal verbs in this conversation and then give students a cloze activity where they would have to work in pairs to put these phrasal verbs into the correct sentence. Then, we would listen to the podcast and students would have the transcript in front of them and they could read it as they listen. I would then have the students work in pairs again and do the dialogue themselves. I would walk around and scaffold where necessary. After, I would ask a couple of pairs to read/act out the dialogue aloud.

Since I teach adult ELLs, I'm using the NYS Adult Ed goals for ESL. The two goals that I based this lesson on are:

Adult Goal 2: Learners will gain control of the system and structure of the English language.

Adult Goal 3: Learners will improve ability to understand spoken English.