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- Vol 7 PE: App D
- Vol 7 RE: Chapter 12
digital native mythmedia multitaskingtask switchinginformation literacydigital skillssource evaluationconcentration costsJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Kirschner and De Bruyckere challenge two popular claims about contemporary students. The “digital native” story assumes that growing up around technology automatically produces sophisticated information literacy, strategic learning, and a need for fundamentally different education.
Key ideas
Evidence instead shows wide variation in access and skill, frequent concentration on a limited set of everyday applications, and no generational transformation of cognitive architecture. The multitasking claim confuses rapid task switching with simultaneous cognitive processing. When two activities require attention, switching imposes time, error, and memory costs; media multitasking can fragment concentration and hinder comprehension and learning. Familiarity with devices therefore does not remove the need to teach search, source evaluation, privacy, knowledge organisation, and deliberate tool use. The authors do not argue that technology is educationally irrelevant or that learners never change.
Why it matters
They reject unsupported generational labels and designs built on presumed innate competence. Teachers and policymakers should assess actual knowledge and needs, choose technology for pedagogical purposes, reduce unnecessary competing demands, and explicitly develop digital and information skills rather than abandoning guidance because students appear fluent with consumer media.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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