{"id":1335,"date":"2015-02-08T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maybulmanontheweb.wordpress.com\/?p=10"},"modified":"2015-02-08T11:15:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T11:15:00","slug":"web-users-immigrants-and-natives-or-visitors-and-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/2015\/02\/08\/web-users-immigrants-and-natives-or-visitors-and-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"Web Users: Immigrants and Natives or Visitors and Residents?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prensky’s concept of ‘Natives’ and ‘Immigrants’ on the surface appeared to make absolute sense to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I considered my 80 year-old grandma’s struggle to send an email, compared with my 13 year-old sister and her seemingly instinctive knowledge of laptops and iPhones.<\/p>\n

\"AnnaiPad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My younger sister engrossed in her digital world on social media<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Indeed, one can easily\u00a0claim that younger people have a sort of inherent confidence with technology. As with a language, when exposed to it from a young age, it comes naturally, while, by contrast, when introduced later in life, it presents more of a struggle (Prensky, 2001).<\/p>\n

BUT, then I reflected more carefully.<\/p>\n

I thought, hold on. My middle-aged dad, who according to Prensky’s theory should be an ‘Immigrant’, spends most of his working life communicating and expanding his company through the Web.<\/p>\n

He performs online tasks that my sister, whose web usage is confined mainly to Facebook and social media, would have no idea how to administer.<\/p>\n

\"Dadcomputer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My dad using digital skills for work purposes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this day in age, when we consider all the different Web users, Prensky’s theory appears flawed. As White states:<\/p>\n

\n

“[It] presents inflexibility of types, as well as the tendency to box individuals into one type or another, overlooking contradictory evidence (White, 2011).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is where White’s concept of “Visitors”<\/strong> and “Residents”<\/strong>\u00a0comes into play. Prensky’s underlying metaphor of language and second language learning is transformed into\u00a0a metaphor of ‘place’.<\/p>\n