Digital Immigrants

Ever notice that an immigrant can learn to speak the language of his/her new country fluently... but an older person retains the accent of his/her language of origin, whereas an younger person speaks the new language accent free? Marc Prensky, in his article entitled Digital Natives - Digital Immigrants, uses the analogy to refer to those who, while perhaps knowing how to use technology, find it to be... well... a different paradigm.

Instead of dwelling on this, let's take a look at a digital immigrant in action:



By a show of hands, how many are digital immigrants?

In what ways are you finding it difficult, or scary, to make use of the technology tools we have at our disposal?

3 comments:

  1. I'm definitely a digital immigrant surrounded by a sea of natives, and trying to learn the language. The computer/typewriter is akin to trying to hang up a cell phone. :)

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    1. LOL! We moved from land line to cell over a year ago, and I still walk to the wall where the phone used to hang... often with my cell in my hand!

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  2. A friend of mine had a remote opener for her car on her car key. The battery on the opener ran out when she was due at a meeting! She panicked, called her husband, and he said, "Did you put the key in the lock and turn it?" I find myself having many such moments with technology!

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