Week 8 Website 4 Digital Imigration

The author in this article doesn't like the term 'Digital natives' and digital immigrants' as he believes they 'misrepresent the true nature of learners and learning today'. He goes on to talk about how as educators many are aware that students today are different than they were as children and students have grown up with digital tools therefor cannot imagin life without them. Whereas many people from the older generation remeber a time when there was no such thnig as email and laptops. However he believes what is wrong is the implications drawn from this distinction and the age distinction is perhaps the most discriminatory. Yes learners today tend to do different things with technology and use it pehaps more than previous generations but what is missing is the analysis of the depth of their understanding of technology. In other words most youth today ahve agood understanding of technology. They know haow to downloadmusic films etc, send emails, communicate on social networking sites like facebook as this is the focus of their current use of technology as a tool. This comes down to the distinction been one of interest and use rather than of age. So if you have a particular interest in technology and use it a lot then you are more likey to be able to have a better undestanding of it no matter how old you are.

To conclude the article Henry Jenkins posts soem thoughts on digital natives/immigrants and gives three major terms that also distort many aspects of the phenomenon:
The terms are ahistorical, It collapses all young people into a so-called digital generation and It ignores the degree that what's really powerful about most of the new forms of participatory culture of fans, bloggers, and gamers is that such affinity spaces allow young people and adults to interact with each other in new terms.

At the end of the article their is a place where peopel can leave their comments which is a good thing. One lady has left a comment which backs up what the article was saying. She is a 4o year old woman who uses technology everyday and is very familiar with it. She considers herself as a digiatl native rather than immigrant which shows its not exclusive to age or generations. Its about those who are comfortable with the power of networks to connect and learn