The disconnect between how students learn and how teachers teach is easy to understand when one considers that the current school system was designed for an agrarian and manufacturing world. However, the world has changed and continues to change in a fast-paced manner.
Today’s multitasking students are better equipped for this change than many adults. In fact researchers Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj refer to this disconnect as the result of poor communication between “digital natives,” today’s students and “digital immigrants,” many adults.* These parents and educators, the digital immigrants, speak DSL, digital as a second language. Look at the problems caused by the differences between how digital students learn and how nondigital teachers teach.
The differences between digital native learners and digital immigrant teachers.
Digital Native Learners
Digital Immigrant Teachers
Prefer receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources.
Prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Prefer parallel processing and multitasking.
Prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Prefer processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds and video.
Prefer random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Prefer to provide information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with many others.
Prefer students to work independently rather than network and interact.
Prefer to learn “just-in-time.”
Prefer to teach “just-in-case” (it’s on the exam).
Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards.
Prefer deferred gratification and deferred rewards.
Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly useful and fun.
Prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and standardized tests.
*Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj, The InfoSavvy Group, February 2003
Charles Babatu Murphy Teacher and Technology Coordinator, Roosevelt High School, St. Louis, MO
Jon Hand Science Teacher, Mansfield Middle School, Storrs, CT
![Teacher and student working together on a computer [photo]](http://images.apple.com/education/digitalkids/disconnect/images/image_landscape.jpg)
