an evolutionary advantage. For those who work, learn, and engage primarily in the digital universe, the ability to superficially focus on multiple things simultaneously, without any one taking precedence—what we now view as a classroom problem—may well be an asset in the very near future.
Of course, many digital immigrant (read: older) teachers are, for the most part, perfectly capable of texting, emailing, conducting online research, downloading music, socializing, and doing pretty much anything their students do online—be it with a laptop, a smartphone, or any other device. However, the concept of doing these things while an authority figure is speaking is completely foreign to them. They didn’t grow up in the land of perpetual connectivity. As Quigley writes, “Gen Y views digital connectivity as a basic right.... Office, school, home and elsewhere, Gen Y goes online whenever and however they want.”9 Gen Y’s predecessors don’t get it. In fact, they often judge this behavior as disrespectful and rude.
Educator Mark Prensky hypothesizes that digital immigrant teachers may need to learn new ways to communicate fluently with digital natives in their own “language” to be more effective educators. Today, educators at virtually every level of learning have done so (or attempted such) by incorporating web lessons and other online activities into their teaching plans. In the fall of 2013, The Los Angeles Unified School District (the largest in the United States), rolled out a program that will ultimately provide an Apple iPad, preloaded with grade appropriate books and educational software to every student in that district (now over 620,000 students) and every educator (over 45,000). No more hard-bound text books and written lesson plans? We’re nearly there. Furthermore, many instructors have embraced online education themselves. On LinkedIn, a popular discussion forum for professionals of all ilks (including teachers), there are, at the time of this writing, approximately 30,000 education-related discussion groups. The Technology in Education group alone has nearly 27,000 members.
Furthermore, college courses taught entirely online have been available (on a small scale) for over a decade, while several universities now provide online graduate programs. And over the past few years, we have begun to experience a global tsunami in online education—from grade school through graduate school. For example, a dozen major universities recently joined in a venture sponsored by Coursera—a company founded by two Stanford University computer science professors—to create one hundred massive open online courses (MOOCs). These offerings are expected to attract millions of students worldwide in a wide range of subjects, including poetry, history, and medicine. For one prototype course in artificial intelligence, (AI), offered by Stanford University in 2011, over 160,000 students from 190 countries signed up. Although only a small percentage of these online students actually completed the course, the overall level of interest is more than a little impressive. Writing about this educational experience, the New York Times gushed, “MOOCs are likely to be a game changer, opening higher education to hundreds of millions of people.”10 By November 2012, Coursera had expanded to include 33 university partners and had enrolled over 2 million students. Its most successful class, “How to Reason and Argue,” attracted over 180,000 students. At about the same time, Harvard and MIT announced they would each put up $30 million to launch edX, a nonprofit venture offering courses from Ivy League universities. Yet another MOOC, Udacity, had 475,000 users by late 2012.11
Most professors likely find it mind-boggling and overwhelming, yet also perhaps extremely attractive, to be able to teach tens of thousands of students at the same time. And this could become a reality sooner rather than later, as some universities consider offering credit for Coursera courses. In the future, online classes may be combined with live lessons to provide traditional interaction between faculty and students in addition to online lectures. In many ways, the meaning of the phrase “going to college” is rapidly changing—especially for individuals who do not have the time or the financial resources to attend a traditional, brick-and-mortar university.
Even within traditional educational institutions teachers are today interacting with students (and parents) through digital media—emails, texts, classroom websites, and so on. College professors who used to find their offices crowded with students during their designated office hours now sit at their desks researching, writing, or planning future lessons during this same time period. Many will digitally interact with their students in real time over computers, phones, notebooks, and laptops via Skype, FaceTime, instant messaging, and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. Teachers receive texts and emails from students at all hours of the day and night. And while technology has made professors more accessible than ever to their students, actual face-to-face interactions occur less frequently. How this change will affect relationships between professors and students and ultimately the learning process itself remains to be seen—especially over the long-term.
Educators differ in their approach to students using digital technology in the classroom. Mary Quigley, the Huffington Post blogger, comments:
In my college classroom, I don’t allow cell phones but do permit laptops on the assumption that students will use them to take notes and to pull up the assigned readings (the days of handouts are over). While some are writing down key points or referring to readings, a good number are also surfing the Internet (sometimes to share updates on the topic du jour), finishing an assignment for my class or another, checking email and logging on to Facebook. On my last day of class this spring, I asked my students about why they feel the need to be online constantly, even in class. One admitted that if the browser was open he felt compelled to surf; “I’m addicted,” he said. While several students complained that it was distracting to sit next to other students who are on Facebook typing away, they didn’t want to say anything. Another student tried to justify checking her email occasionally during class for “important” messages; of course when you’re 19, an “important” message can be anything from Jessica Simpson giving birth, to a Supreme Court ruling, to an internship posting.12
While some experts believe it is possible to successfully digitally multitask in the classroom and elsewhere, others vehemently disagree. But the fact is to date there is simply not enough evidence-based research, particularly studies about Gen Y and Gen Z, to know if digital natives who’ve grown up multitasking will develop the skills to be as productive or perhaps even more productive than previous generations. Whereas most baby boomers would likely argue that it is virtually impossible to carry on an in-person conversation while simultaneously typing on another topic, their belief that a person cannot divide his or her attention in that manner does not mean that people cannot evolve to do just that—where required. And it is equally likely that most Millennials would disagree with the boomers’ point of view. So, are the brains of digital natives literally developing differently than the brains of older generations? This seems quite likely considering the early developmental stage at which children now begin using digital communication technology, but it is also too soon to know. What is certain is that sociologists, educators, communication experts, and brain researchers are keeping a close eye on this possibility. What we do know now is that classrooms—indeed, education as a whole—have been altered permanently by the digital revolution. Whether you feel that these changes are for the better or worse depends, to a large extent, on when you were born.
The Workplace Divide
Digital immigrants and digital natives increasingly face a generation gap in the workplace as well. In part, this stems from differing generational values related to concepts like “respect for authority,” “respect for the workplace,” what defines a “solid work ethic,” and “communal productivity.” Yet the bulk of this current workplace divide appears to stem from differing uses of and reliance upon new communications and documentation technologies.
Up until very recently, workplaces were usually populated by only two generations at a time. While these two generations may not have always liked or respected each other, they knew each other. There weren’t a lot of surprises. When the younger generation “misbehaved,” the older generation recognized what was going on and dealt with it effectively because, as parents,
