As anyone who has heard me rant on the subject of the last few years knows, I find the notion of "digital natives" and "net gen" highly problematic.
This popular trend in discourses surrounding teaching and learning with technology labels young, technology literate students as “Net Gen Learners” or “Digital Natives” e.g. Brown; Oblinger; Prensky (all pdfs) and their teachers as “digital immigrants.” While this is a helpful metaphor for helping us understand some of the changes technology is bringing to educational context, such generalizations also run the risk of obscuring the diversity and difference that exists across groups of students.
Dividing the world across generational lines in superficial ways perpetuates myths about people’s access to (and use of) technology and marginalizes those who don’t fit the stereotype. I have argued that there has been an absence of critical analysis of discourse in the nature of the learner – that is, much of what is being disseminated and published as a broad trend is anecdotal or highly localized. Much of the discourse surrounding this phenomenon occurs in the forms of conference sessions sponsored by professional organizations that cater to technology professionals (e.g. EDUCAUSE) that feature NetGen learners giving their perspectives, presentations where “older” experts, who Prensky refers to as ‘Digital Immigrants,’ conflate emerging technology with learning and interaction styles (pdf); and “how-to” books (pdf) for teaching this new breed of students.
These types of representations result in a tendency to consider these students as a monolithic and uniform group. This tendency simultaneously over-simplifies the nature of today’s student, and diminishes the diversity and distributed-ness that makes this group different from many that have preceded it. Additionally, these representations suggest that the only way to reach these students is through the use of certain technologies (the newer the better) and by embracing interactivity, instantaneousness, and technological ubiquity.
It's nice to see research emerging that starts to more empirically explore this topic. While I have not read this article in its entirety yet, I was intrigued that the "study did not find evidence to support popular claims that young people adopt radically different learning styles."
Article:
Are digital natives a myth or reality? University students’ use of digital technologies
