ABSTRACT
Marc Prensky (2001) coined the term digital native to refer to a group of young people who have been immersed in technology all their lives, giving them distinct and unique characteristics that set them apart from previous generations. They have sophisticated technical skills and learning preferences for which traditional education is unprepared. He coined the term not based on research into this generation, but rather by rationalizing phenomena that he observed (e.g. he saw kids “surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (2001, p. 1) and assumed (a) that they understood what they were doing, (b) that they were using the artifacts effectively and efficiently, and (c) that it's good to design education where they can do this. Veen and Vrakking (2006) followed suit, introducing the term homo zappiens to refer to a new generation of learners who learn in a significantly different way than their predecessors.
