Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

According to Marc Prensky, a digital native is someone born in the digital era. On the other hand, a digital immigrant is someone who was not born during the digital era and had to adopt to new technology later in life. This distinction creates the native/immigrant divide. Most digital immigrants have to adapt to this new way of thinking and learning in order to teach younger students. However, they are stuck in their old tradition ways which does not transfer well to the new generation. They are speaking and teaching in an outdated language in which natives are unable to understand.

A myth Kirschner associated with Prensky's findings from 2001 is that digital natives can multitask. Kirschner defines multitasking as a person who is capable of carrying out multiple cognitive tasks. He argues that a human brain can only perform a single task at a time. The human cognitive system may carry out multiple tasks in a quick succession rather than all at once, since the brain cannot actually perform two cognitive tasks at once.