Digital Natives.

I agree with Marc Pranskey (2001) when he said, "Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives."
Digital native is the label given to these new students of today. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet. So what does that make the rest of us, like me? Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by it are known as Digital Immigrants.
References Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved July 27, 2009, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf