May/June 2003 // Commentary Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants:
Some Thoughts from the Generation Gap by Timothy VanSlyke Note:
This article was originally published in The Technology Source (
as: Timothy VanSlyke "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Some
Thoughts from the Generation Gap" The Technology Source,
May/June 2003. Available online at The article is reprinted here
with permission of the publisher.  In a two-part series entitled
"Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives," Marc Prensky (2001a and
2001b) employs an analogy of native speakers and immigrants to
describe the generation gap separating today's students (the
"digital natives") from their teachers (the "digital
immigrants"). The digital natives Prensky describes are
surrounded by digital media to such an extent that their very
brain structures may be different from those of previous
generations:  Digital Natives are used to receiving information
really fast. They like to parallel process and multitask. They
prefer their graphics before their te