Digital natives are reshaping expectations for classroom learning
Digital learning demands have changed, though research shows constant internet access doesn’t make students information-savvy. Classroom technology trends now favor school-controlled tools, with game-based learning the best-evidenced of the innovative teaching strategies.
According to stats from Pew Research, 96% of US teens use the internet on a daily basis, and 46% say they’re online almost constantly, which is roughly double the 2014-2015 figure. For teachers, that means half of any given class has grown up in continuous contact with the online world, making them so-called digital natives, driving a fundamental shift in how students interact with, retain, and learn from information.
What the Digital Native Label Gets Wrong
According to Kirschner and De Bruyckere’s 2017 paper in Teaching and Teacher Education, information-savvy digital natives don’t actually exist, because they argue that being raised with digital media doesn’t produce the ability to evaluate the validity and reliability of information. People always mistakenly assume that the skill is already there and skip teaching it.
The same paper also concluded that, despite what they might think, these so-called digital native students don’t actually multitask; they task switch, and the switching costs them learning. Lesson plans designed around the presumed ability for students to absorb two streams of information at once are based on a flawed premise, and make the problem worse.
In a 2013 paper by Sana, Weston, and Cepeda, cited in that same review, it was found that laptop multitasking during a lecture lowered scores for the multitasking student and for the classmates who were seated in places where they could see the screen. One open laptop can do more damage than you might think.
Phone Policy Has Redefined Classroom Technology
Education Week’s tracking counts at least 38 states and the District of Columbia requiring districts to ban or restrict student cellphone use at school. Personal devices are becoming less tolerated as the harm caused by the inevitable distraction becomes clearer. So what can teachers do to engage these easily distracted students?
Game-Based Learning as an Alternative for Digital Natives
A 2022 meta-analysis by Lei and colleagues found that game-based learning produced substantially higher science achievement than traditional instruction. One of the reasons for that is the feedback speed of games; you quickly know if you’re right or wrong, mirroring the instant gratification and instant response that students have come to expect from the internet.
Schools weighing this modern education innovation approach can start with a game-based learning readiness report to check the devices and staff before picking a platform for this kind of instruction.
What This Means for Teachers
The digital natives concept may or may not be correct, but regardless of that, it hasn’t changed the way learning works on a cognitive level. What has changed is the environment students spend their non-school hours in, and schools now control how technology is used in the classroom.
So we’re now starting to realize the harm that these digital systems and social media platforms have done to kids’ ability to learn, and it’s the responsibility of teachers of this generation to address these mistakes through engaging teaching methods.
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