Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

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THE PREVIOUS INSTALLMENT OF "Mindful Voice," "Creativity in Crisis?," concluded with a look at some of the cognitive effects of digital technology, and what that technology's overuse may be wreaking upon human creativity. As I noted in that column,

. . . creativity . . . does need mental space. And space implies time. The experts are still debating whether or not digital technology destroys concentration, but no one who uses it can dispute the fact that it gobbles up big chunks of our time.1

According to technology reporter Matt Richtel, in one recent year (2008), the average person consumed three times as much information each day as he/she did in 1960.2 This is almost …