From the divide to the bridges: an essay about digital nativity, natives jr. and descollections

Abstract

This essay presents a critical review and a brief discussion of the text “Digital natives, digital immigrants”, published in 2001 by American game designer Marc Prensky. Until today his work is mentioned in Brazil by researchers of applied linguistics and educational studies. We think it is relevant to reconsider the questions posed by that text almost two decades ago, mainly to discuss the idea of a “digital divide” established between the most important school players, i.e., students and teachers. In order to secure a theoretical and epistemological contrast in thinking educational matters linked with the digital technology context, we resort to Latin-American anthropologist Néstor García Canclini and his “collections” and “descollections”, besides the more democratic and more contextualized proposal of Brazilian researcher Roxane Rojo. 

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).