Reflections of a Digital Immigrant

…how Educause 2005 changed the way I think about teaching

By Dr. Pierre Boulos

For a podcast version of this article, click here.

This past October was my first experience with Educause. Every year the Educause “train” visits the region where Information Technology and higher education meet. That it took place in sunny Orlando, Florida was an added bonus. I’ve been to many academic conferences and nothing in my experience compared to this. Imagine 4,000 to 5,000 conference participants gathered in one of the largest buildings in North America. On average, there were seven or eight concurrent sessions along with a slate of workshops, the latter being offered by “corporate” sponsors. On top of all this was a large trade show area with the likes of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, WebCT, Turnitin, and so on, showcasing the latest and greatest in IT products and services for the academic community. By the end of each day I was exhausted from information overload, very much like any academic conference I might attend.

Don’t get me wrong … the experience was wonderful. Of the many new gems of knowledge I managed to unearth, I would like to share a few here. The beauty of this yearly conference is its cross-disciplinary nature. It's not just that computer scientists rub shoulders with philosophers or sociologists or mathematicians. Universities, like ours, are represented by their IT people and their instructional development gang, with some academics tagging along. They get to exchange ideas with some of the best and most influential people in corporate America, as well as academe.

The beauty of this conference is its cross-disciplinary nature.

As a faculty member, I must say that I hadn’t put much thought into the processes IT Services and CFL navigate in order to aid us in our teaching and research. At Educause 2005, everything from choosing the right security package (which affects not only teaching but all electronic activity on campus) to exploring podcasting or clicker technology was examined critically. For our IT and CFL colleagues to maneuver through all this, they needed to have a good sense of our academic needs and expectations. This is no easy task and it is all too easy for us not to appreciate the exceptional and dedicated work that goes on behind the scenes. This conference brought into stark relief the benefits I receive from CFL and ITS.

A second item I would like to mention is the rise of “podcasting” as a higher educational tool. Podcasting refers to the act of broadcasting information, in our case lectures and what not, to an audience in a digital format (typically MP3). The audience receives the broadcast at some point in time by downloading it or by having it pushed to their iPod or some other MP3 player. Last year, Duke University gave their incoming class last year iPods on which were messages from the President of the university, registrars, housing, and the various professors teaching first-year classes. On top of this, first year course lectures were to be pushed to the students through podcasts. Here at the University of Windsor, our own students have come to rely on having digital access to course content. Podcasting is yet another spin on this. The CFL has begun experimenting with podcast support – a welcome addition to be sure.

Attending a lecture, searching with Google, interacting with clickers -- today's students are adept at multi-tasking with technology.
photo: Brian Cowan

Pushing knowledge out¹ to students is closely related to a key element of podcasting. From the opening general session with Scott McNealy (President and CEO of Sun Microsystems) to subsequent sessions, it was evident that this conference wasn’t just about new-fangled tools we could use in the classroom. In a real sense, the focus of the conference was the student. In his 2001 article, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” Marc Prensky observes, “our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”² Digital natives (generation D) were raised on MTV, video games, IM (instant messaging), e-mail, the web, and cell phones. Theoretically, as digital natives, our students have developed cognitive thinking patterns different from previous generations. This poses an interesting challenge to professors and instructional designers who must develop learning materials appropriate to the cognitive learning patterns of digital natives.

I’ve seen students “Google” terms or ideas as I am presenting them. They aren’t necessarily wasting time nor are they missing my lecture. Sometimes, based on skimming these quick references, they ask interesting and provocative questions.

Digital natives also embrace leading edge technologies, which include, among others: modding, smart mobs, blogging, Wiki, IM, MMOs, and RSS Feeds (how many of these do you recognize? How many do you know?). Some of the ways in which our learners are now different could form the subject matter of several large theses. For me, I’ve noticed that students aren’t passive. They are in control and they like to shape the way they learn. The tried and true way of simple lectures may find instructors losing the interest of more and more students. That is not to say that we ought not to lecture, but rather the challenge is to structure lectures so they take advantage of non-linear and random access to knowledge. Think of hyperlinks and how branching in our knowledge quest still allows us to learn. Now go back to your lecture notes and create some metaphorical hyperlinks. Instead of the lecture proceeding from point A to point B in a linear way, at some point you might take the class on to another point, which in turn points to something else, and so on. This could even be more exciting when students initiate or motivate class discussions in an interesting, yet relevant, direction. You might eventually take the discussion to point B, or not. If done properly, this could be an enriching experience.

Learners, today, have access to a breadth and width of resources and, consequently, today’s learner can explore content in many different and exciting ways. This is already going on thanks in some degree to the wireless connectivity we experience all over campus. I’ve seen students “Google” terms or ideas as I am presenting them. They aren’t necessarily wasting time nor are they missing my lecture. Sometimes, based on skimming these quick references, they ask interesting and provocative questions. Our in class responses are one way we can move towards a learning centred environment!

New technologies not only allow digital natives to function in a multi-tasking environment, the new technology encourages it. We now hear students playing podcasts in the car on their way home or to work after going to the class.

You may be asking “what are these different cognitive styles that you keep mentioning?” In his paper, Prensky identifies ten different styles that distinguish the learning styles of digital natives as opposed to the “digital immigrant.” I will highlight a few here. First, digital natives have grown accustomed to incredibly fast paced media development. The Nintendo-Game Boy generation now expects the media to change. If we are not careful, our delivery of course content will change at a snail’s pace, while digital learners will expect it to change rapidly.

I’ve already mentioned the non-linear approach learners now take. This shouldn't be surprising. New technologies not only allow digital natives to function in a multi-tasking environment, the new technology encourages it. We now hear students playing podcasts in the car on their way home or to work after going to the class. Some instructors fear their classes will be skipped if students have the presentation slides, let alone audio files of the lectures available online. Yet I heard one VP from Apple claim that, when done properly, mounting presentation slides, lectures, or even podcasts of lectures prior to the lecture will actually encourage students to come to class. That is, attendance need not go down with the use of these technologies.

Those of us who have maintained active ViCKi (UW courseware) course kits know all too well the heavy amount of work needed to maintain the discussion board associated with a class. I have heard some of my colleagues complain about the amount of time it takes to moderate a discussion board, let alone trying to keep up with the barrage of student email. Turning this around, we see that by their active participation students want to access the knowledge flow. The days of passive learning are gone, or at least numbered.

Whether studying, researching, playing, or relaxing, digital natives are looking for new way to use technology in order to fashion a new (learning) environment. Why? Because they can.

Finally, a theme that was discussed over and over at Educause was the relationship that new learners have with technology. For many of us “digital immigrants”, technology is something we have to learn or conquer or figure out. We stick to the tried and true, and maintain that the learning curve is too steep to bother with new technologies. Not so for the digital native. Technology for the new learner is an ally and a friend. Whether studying, researching, playing, or relaxing, digital natives are looking for new way to use technology in order to fashion a new (learning) environment. Why? Because they can.

The challenge for us educators is to identify and fashion learning strategies that are appropriate for digital natives. To do so requires we appreciate the new ways today’s learners process information. And, we need to develop tools that challenge students the to excel in their educational experience. Thankfully, IT Services and CFL³ are working with us along the way ….

Notes:

Dr. Pierre Boulos, is an instructor and learning specialist in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Windsor.

© 2006, Pierre Boulos. All rights reserved.