Tuesday 6 September 2011

Visitors and Residents

I've always had some issues with the idea of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants proposed by Marc Prensky. Although it seemed a very neat way to describe users in the 21st Century, I never felt it was as clear cut as many who jumped to use his description.
My love of exploring ICT came from my Mum - not a Digital Native by any stretch of the imagination! As a teacher in a Special School, she used to bring home her new Apple in its carry bag and simply play with it to find out how she might use it with her pupils.
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 That enquiry led, learner focused approach has benefited me enormously, and I would also not describe myself as a Digital Native in Prensky's terms. Bennett, et al., 2008, proposed 'It may be that there is as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations.'


So, it was with great interest that I read 'Visitors and Residents: A New Typology for Online Engagement' by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu 
This concept sits much more comfortably with my own experiences and those that I have seen within the many schools I have now worked in. Have a read and see what you think? I'm going to mull it over a bit more myself as I only came across the article yesterday, but it seemed like a great article to share.

Sue Bennett, Karl Maton and Lisa Kervin, 2008. “The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence,” British Journal of Educational Technology, volume 39, number 5, pp. 775–786.

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