Growing up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation
Growing up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation
The relationship between Internet identification, Internet anxiety and Internet use
Computers in Human Behavior
Perceptions of Computer Science at a South African university
Computers & Education
Analyzing human-computer interaction as distributed cognition: the resources model
Human-Computer Interaction
Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
Student and faculty inter-generational digital divide: Fact or fiction?
Computers & Education
Tweens' characterization of digital technologies
Computers & Education
Little experience with ICT: Are they really the Net Generation student-teachers?
Computers & Education
An initial development and validation of a Digital Natives Assessment Scale (DNAS)
Computers & Education
Hi-index | 0.00 |
In 2001 Marc Prensky coined the phrase 'digital natives' to refer to the new generation of students who have grown up surrounded by technology. His companion papers spurred large amounts of research, debating changes that are required to curricula and pedagogical models to cater for the changes in the student population. This article reports on a study conducted in 2009 of more than 290 first year students at two South African universities. In this study, students were asked about their access to and use of technology. The results portrayed a heterogeneous student population, with varying levels of access to and use of most technologies. One of Prensky's key features of a digital native is their excitement with Web 2.0 based technologies. Participants in this study however, appear not to use such technologies, and to not be interested in using them in their studies. One tool that students had high levels of access to (98.1%), and use of is the mobile phone. Out of all uses of technology surveyed, tasks involving the mobile phone were ranked in the top two positions. Also when asked to rank different uses of technology particularly for their studies, three of the top five uses relied on a mobile phone.