The myths of the digital native and the multitasker
Contenu
Titre
The myths of the digital native and the multitasker
Teaching and Teacher Education
Créateur
Paul A. Kirschner
Pedro De Bruyckere
Sujet
Digital native
Educational reform
Homo zappiëns
Multitasking
Résumé
Current discussions about educational policy and practice are often embedded in a mind-set that considers students who were born in an age of omnipresent digital media to be fundamentally different from previous generations of students. These students have been labelled digital natives and have been ascribed the ability to cognitively process multiple sources of information simultaneously (i.e., they can multitask). As a result of this thinking, they are seen by teachers, educational administrators, politicians/policy makers, and the media to require an educational approach radically different from that of previous generations. This article presents scientific evidence showing that there is no such thing as a digital native who is information-skilled simply because (s)he has never known a world that was not digital. It then proceeds to present evidence that one of the alleged abilities of students in this generation, the ability to multitask, does not exist and that designing education that assumes the presence of this ability hinders rather than helps learning. The article concludes by elaborating on possible implications of this for education/educational policy.
volume
67
pages
135-142
Date
October 1, 2017
Titre abrégé
Teaching and Teacher Education
doi
10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.001
issn
0742-051X