E Learning II Part A

What are some characteristics of digital natives? (What are they good at? What are they poor at?)

Digital natives are made up of youth from the younger generation who grew up being heavily exposed to modern technology like computers. Typically, they play alot of computer games and develop in a very different way as compared to the older generation.
One of the striking characteristics of digital natives is that they develop "hypertext minds" - think in a parallel fashion as compared to others who are more likely to think in a sequential way.
As a result of their "alternative upbringing", digital natives develop differently and can be good at representational competence, multidimensional spatial skills, mental maps, inductive discovery and attentional deployment.
However, one major drawback from receiving this digital native style development is that they tend to have shorter attention spans. They also tend to be less adept at reflecting.


Which portrait did you select? (In your blog, create a link to the portrait.) In terms of their digital background, how similar was that student compared to a Singapore student?
I selected Luis. He is similar to a Singaporean student who is quite proficient in the use of technology. He relies heavily on technology and seems addicted to checking email and facebook.
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-luis

How might teachers in Singapore today engage and teach our digital natives?
The easiest and most direct way to engage our digital natives is perhaps to incorporate technoogy and game-based learning in our lessons.