First year students' experiences with technology: Are they really digital natives?

This paper reports on a study conducted in 2006 with more than 2,000 incoming first-year Australian university students. Students were asked about their access to, use of and preferences for an array of established and emerging technologies and technology based tools. The results show that many first year students are highly tech-savvy. However, when one moves beyond entrenched technologies and tools (e.g. computers, mobile phones, email), the patterns of access and use of a range of other technologies show considerable variation. The findings are discussed in light of Prensky's (2001a) notions of the 'Digital Natives' and the implications for using technology to support teaching and learning in higher education.

• Publication year

  2008

• Venue

  Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

• Publication date

  2008-01-16

• Fields of study

  Sociology, Computer Science, Education

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.14742/AJET.1233
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• The results are interpreted against Prensky's digital natives notion in relation to technology support for higher education teaching and learning.

  Confidence 0.84

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• Outside established technologies such as computers, mobile phones, and email, students' access to and use of other technologies varied considerably.

  Confidence 0.96

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• Many incoming first-year Australian university students were highly tech-savvy.

  Confidence 0.91

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• More than 2,000 incoming first-year Australian university students were surveyed about their access to, use of, and preferences for technologies and technology-based tools.

  Confidence 0.98

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review

• access, use, and preferences

  survey measures, dimensions

  The survey dimensions capturing whether students could obtain technologies, how they used them, and which tools they preferred.

  Aliases: access and use, preferences, technology access and use

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• digital natives

  educational concepts

  Prensky's label for young people presumed to have grown up with digital technologies and to be naturally fluent with them.

  Aliases: Prensky's digital natives

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• emerging technologies

  technology categories

  Newer or less established technologies included in the study's technology list beyond the familiar core tools.

  Aliases: new technologies, other technologies

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• established technologies

  technology categories

  Longstanding technologies that were already entrenched in student life, such as computers, mobile phones, and email.

  Aliases: entrenched technologies, existing technologies

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• higher education teaching and learning

  education settings

  University-level teaching and learning contexts discussed as the setting in which technology might support instruction.

  Aliases: teaching and learning in higher education, university teaching and learning

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• incoming first-year australian university students

  population, sample

  The cohort of newly enrolled first-year students at Australian universities who participated in the 2006 survey.

  Aliases: first-year students, incoming students, Australian university students

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review
• technology-based tools

  tools, technologies

  Digital tools or services included in the survey as items students could access, use, or prefer.

  Aliases: technology tools, tools

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extractionB (s683577b42) reviewAnonymous (12632b8b5f) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) review

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