by Mitch Lorenz, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center
“We often hear from teachers about increasing problems their students have with reading and thinking.”
If I told you this quote was from a concerned faculty member, voicing their worries about generative AI, you would probably believe me. The quote actually comes from Marc Prensky in an article often credited with popularizing the term “digital natives” in 2001 (Prensky, p. 4). Prensky (2001) suggested that growing up with technology would fundamentally change the brain development of children in ways that would make it difficult for older “digital immigrants” to communicate with and educate these “digital natives.” Twenty-five years later, what can we learn about education in the age of AI by considering the previous reaction to the introduction of the internet, handheld computing, and wider technology availability?
We now know that the assumption that growing up surrounded by technology would make students skilled at using it for learning was misguided (Kirschner & DeBruyckere, 2017). While students appear to use a wide variety of technology, that use is largely limited to personal empowerment, entertainment, and communication (Kennedy & Fox, 2013). Basically, growing up with technology made it “just another thing” to do what kids want to be doing: talking to their friends and being entertained. This is reflected in data on digital competency, in which students showed higher competence in digital communication and information gathering than they did in safety, digital creation of materials, and problem solving (Lucas et al., 2022).
What does this tell us about the future of AI application in teaching and learning? Well, if we draw conclusions from what has become of the “digital natives,” then we can expect AI natives to leverage AI for entertainment and communication. AI use may become as second nature as cell phone use has, but assuming it will be skilled and learning-oriented use would be making the same mistake the argument for digital natives made. With this in mind, the best way to prepare for the AI natives of the future is to not prepare for them at all. Instead, by structuring our teaching to help students learn skills they may be lacking, like applying technology for research and problem solving, we can support the students of today and tomorrow.
References
Kennedy, D. M., & Fox, R. (2013). ‘Digital natives’: An Asian perspective for using learning technologies. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 9(1), 65-79.
Kirschner, P. A., & De Bruyckere, P. (2017). The myths of the digital native and the multitasker. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 135-142. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.001
Lucas, M., Bem‐haja, P., Santos, S., Figueiredo, H., Ferreira Dias, M., & Amorim, M. (2022). Digital proficiency: Sorting real gaps from myths among higher education students. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(6), 1885-1914.
Prensky. M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 2: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424843
