Digital Natives Others First Year Students

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Digital Natives Others First Year Students
EDUCAUSE 2007

• Dr Gregor Kennedy
• Biomedical Multimedia Unit
• with colleagues Dr Kerri-Lee Krause, Dr Terry
  Judd, Ms Anna Churchward Dr Kathleen Gray

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Marc Prensky (2001)

• They digital natives have spent their entire
  lives surrounded by and using computers,
  videogames, digital music players, video cams,
  cell phones and all the other toys and tools of
  the digital age
• It is now clear that as a result of this
  ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of
  their interaction with it, todays students think
  and process information fundamentally differently
  from their predecessors.
• It is very likely that our students brains have
  physically changed - and are different from ours
  - as a result of how they grew up.

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Digital Natives

• Digital Natives Net Generation Y
  Generation Millennials
• Born roughly between 1980 and 1994
• Characterised by their familiarity with and
  reliance on information and communication
  technologies (ICTs).
• prefer multi-tasking and quick, non-linear access
  to information
• are adept at processing information rapidly
• have a low tolerance for lectures
• prefer active rather than passive learning
• rely heavily on communications technologies to
  access information and to carry out social and
  professional interactions.

(Prensky 2001a, 2001b Oblinger, 2003 Gros,
2003 Frand, 2000)
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The Problem Natives vs. Immigrants

• Digital Immigrant University staff are
  ill-equipped to educate Digital Natives, whose
  sophisticated use of emerging technologies is
  incompatible with current teaching practice.
• Prensky (2001) suggests that this disparity is
  the the biggest single problem facing education
  today (p. 2).
• Commentators say educators need to adjust their
  pedagogical models to suit the preferences of
  this new generation of students.

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The Problem with the Problem

• Assumptions underlying Prenskys view on students
  in Higher Education
• All incoming University students are Digital
  Natives.
• These Digital Natives are an homogenous group.
• These Digital Natives are more adept with
  technology than their teachers.
• Everyday skills with technology will easily
  translate into beneficial technology-based
  learning.

This project sought to address the first two of
these assumptions
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What is the evidence?

• While there are plenty of case studies, and some
  evidence, of the successful application of
  technology in Higher Education, there is little
  empirical research on the Digital Natives per se.
  
• Kvavik (2005) and Kvavik Caruso (2005)
• ICT permeates all aspects of students lives.
• Students are comfortable with core technologies
  less comfortable with specialised technologies.
• High levels of use and skill did not necessarily
  translate into preferences for increased use of
  technology in the classroom.
• Students prefer technology to a moderate degree
  and as a supplement in courses.

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Aim - Digital Natives Study

• Empirically document first-year University of
  Melbourne students experiences with an array of
  technologies and technology-based tools.
• Focus on
• - Entrenched technologies (e.g. computers,
  email).
• - Emerging technology-based tools (e.g. IM,
  social networking, SMS, blogs, wikis, file
  sharing, RSS, podcasting).

It is worth noting that the study does not
investigate the more cognitive characteristics of
the Digital Natives (cognitive structure or
function i.e. neuroplasticity).
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Method

• 1,973 first year students surveyed.
• Orientation week and first week of Semester 1,
  2006.
• Good representation across faculties.
• 62.4 females 37.5 males.
• 23.4 International 75.2 Local students.

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Method
Questionnaire

• Demographics (11 items)
• Access to hardware and the Internet (16 items)
• Use of tech-tools
• Computer (10 items)
• Web (22 items)
• Mobile (7 items)
• Skills with tech-tools (39 items)
• Preferences for tech-tools in University
  studies (34 items)

Students were asked to report on their previous
year
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Results - Access
11
Results - Access
Core Technologies or becoming so

• Mobile phone (96)
• Desktop computer (90)
• Digital camera (76)
• Broadband Internet (73)
• MP3 player (69)
• Laptop computer (63)

of students with Unrestricted access
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Results - Use
Core Tech-Activities or becoming so

• Sending or receiving email (94)
• Mobile phone voice calls (92)
• Mobile phone text messaging (93)
• Creating documents (88)
• Playing digital music files (84)
• Web-searching for general information (83)
• Communicating via instant messaging (80)
• Web-searching for study (76)

of students completing activities daily or
weekly
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Results - Use
Emerging Tech-Activities

• Mobiles to take digital photos or movies (57)
• Mobiles to send digital photos or movies (33)
• Web-based file sharing - music (38)
• - photos (31)
• Blogs - reading (38)
• - commenting (27)
• - maintaining (21)

• Social networking (24)
• VOIP telephony (19)
• Web-conferencing (19)

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Factor Analyses
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Factor Analyses
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Factor Analyses
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Results - Use
Used 9 factors in a MANOVA by Gender (male,
female) by Residency (international,
local) by Faculty

• Gender
• Females gt Males for
• - Web Publishing
• - Advanced Mobile
• Males gt Females for
• - Web Services
• - Games

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Results - Use
Used 9 factors in a MANOVA by Gender (male,
female) by Residency (international,
local) by Faculty

• Residency
• International gt Local for
• - Web Publishing
• - Advanced Mobile
• - MP3, Pics IM
• - Advanced Web
• - Games
• - Standard Mobile
• Local gt International for
• - Web Services

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Results - Use
Used 9 factors in a MANOVA by Gender (male,
female) by Residency (international,
local) by Faculty
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Results - Preferences
To assist with my University studies I want
to be able to use
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Results - Preferences
Most want to use

• Computer for digital document creation and
  multimedia presentations, learning portal, web
  searches and Uni services, instant messaging and
  SMS.

Some want to use but some dont

• Creating web pages / web sites, using PDAs,
  social networking software, web conferencing, RSS
  feeds and blogs

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Implications Learning and Teaching Strategy

• While there are clearly many tech-savvy first
  year students
• - there is substantial diversity among this
  cohort
• - particularly when one moves beyond core
  technologies.
• Any technology-based learning and teaching
  strategies need to consider student equity
  (access and skill levels).
• There are essential technologies expected by
  students.
• While the use of some technologies is widely
  endorsed by students other technologies clearly
  dont enjoy this endorsement.

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Implications for Prensky

• The assumptions underpinning Prenskys rhetoric
  about a new generation of Digital Native students
  dont quite hold.
• The sheer volume of their interaction with
  their technologically ubiquitous environment
• They have spent their entire lives using
  videogames, digital music players, video cams,
  cell phones and all the other toys and tools of
  the digital age.
• Its true for some, Its not true for others

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Implications for Prensky

• Rather than scrambling to react to the so-called
  Digital Natives and changing our curricula in
  response to what we think they might be like (or
  like)
• we need to think carefully about how we can use
  particular core and emerging technologies to
  support learning in higher education, given the
  known diversity of experiences, attitudes and
  expectations of all students.

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Pushing Boundaries Beyond Convenience

• The ECAR Framework Students ICT expectations
  and preferences

Quadrant 1 Convenience 50
Quadrant 2 Connection 20
Quadrant 3 Control 14
Quadrant 4 Learning 13
(adapted from Kvavik Caruso, 2005, p.11)
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Acknowledgements

• The Project Team Kerri-Lee Krause, Terry Judd,
  Anna Churchward, Kathleen Gray.
• The Project Sponsor Associate Professor Sue
  Elliott, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching, Learning
  and Equity).
• Students and staff who assisted with data
  collection.
• Billy Lee for this presentation.
• Barney Dalgarno and Sue Bennett.

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Questions
www.bmu.unimelb.edu.au/research/netgen/index.html
www.bmu.unimelb.edu.au/research/munatives/index.h
tml