Five things "Digital Natives" need in Educational Technology

Today's younger generation is considered to be "digital natives" because they have
grown up with Internet/mobile technology and are highly comfortable with it.

But what are the implications of that? Should educators really treat them differently?

According to this story, a recent academic study suggests that today's students are no better at information skills simply because they grew up in the digital era. It also finds evidence that “digital natives” are no better at multitasking than other age cohorts.

So, as a teacher, I wonder what this says about instructional technology (and here I am talking about systems that go beyond PPT slides and playing YouTube videos in class).

There is a lot of research that shows that, in general, students like using technology for schoolwork.  In part, this is because they are already used to technology, and in part because it tends to lead classes away from boring lecture-memorization methodologies.

But I teach specialized technology, used for broadcasting.  Many of my students are great users of the technology, but......

If there is a problem, many of them are stymied. Some of them cannot even explain what the problem is sufficiently for me to understand it, without going to look for myself (and then I can often solve the problem in two minutes).

Then there's the recurring problem of the students who save a file, and then cannot come back and find it again, because of lack of understanding of file folder structure. That should not be college-level curriculum!

So my take is that today's generation of students is sophisticated in USE of technology, but not necessarily in UNDERSTANDING how the technology works.

Again -- what are the implications?

1. The technology used needs to be highly intuitive do it doesn't NEED figuring out.
2. Students need ample instruction in how to use it (called "induction training"). As long as it is confucing or hard to use, it will reduce their motivation.
3. Teachers need to use scaffolding -- giving high levels of technology support early, but gradually lessening the support to encourage students to become more independent and able to solve problems.
4. As much as possible, the technology needs to be cross-platform, i.e. suitable tfor desktop computers, laptops, and smartphones. Of course, this is not always possible.  My broadcasting assignments need to be done with professional hardware and software to be effective, not Garage Band. But for example, our school's Learning Management System (the only system allowed for online instruction) is just finally being updated this year to be friendly to mobile devices.
5. Teachers need to guard against mobile devices as distractions in class.  They can add to the classroom experience, such as for quick research during class discussion. But whenever a student blanks a screen or minimizes a window when the teacher walks up, you can bet that the device has been a distraction, not an learning aid.  This can be challenging because students resent being told they cannot text message during class, etc.  

I think that my particular Electronic Media program does a pretty good job of teaching the technology in a way that is not too intimidating and builds complexity step-by-step in reasonable increments.  And we'll need to, because we have new hardware and software we'll need to start using the first week.