Training the Digital natives

Know about Digital Natives? They are the ones who have spent their entire lives using computers, playing videogames, listening to digital music players, uploading video from their phones onto YouTube and keeping up with their friends through Facebook. According to research in the USA the average college graduate there has spent less than 5,000 hours reading, but over10,000 hours playing video games - and 20,000 hours watching TV. Computer games, email, the Internet, mobile phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. And it is very likely that as a result their brains are physically different from ours.

Although most of us grew up with the understanding that the human brain doesn't physically change based on stimulation it receives from the outside, it turns out that it does. Based on the latest research in neurobiology, there is no longer any question that stimulation of various kinds actually changes brain structures and affects the way people operate. You may remember the revelation a few years ago that London Taxi Drivers' brains are enlarged, compared to the population as a whole, in the area that stores and accesses information about routes. Going 'on the knowledge' changes your brain. A comparison of musicians brains with those who do not play an instrument showed a 5 percent greater volume in the musicians' cerebellums, which the researchers ascribed to adaptations in the musician's brain structures resulting from their intensive training and practice.

And if that is not enough for you, there is research from social psychologists showing that people who grow up in different cultures do not just think about different things, they actually think differently. The environment and culture in which people are raised affects and even determines many of their thought processes.

So, what do we know about the 'Digital Native' generation?

• They are used to receiving information very rapidly.
• They like to parallel process and multi-task.
• They prefer graphics to text, or at the very least, graphics before text.
• They like random access like hypertext.
• They want to be networked and linked together.
• They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards.
• They prefer games to "serious" work.

So what does all this mean for trainers (and come to that for school teachers and university lecturers)? Well, one option is Digital Game Based Learning. As Mark Prensky puts it: "When you think of computer games, there's lots of engagement but little content. Business has lots of content, but no engagement. Put the two together and you have a way to learn the business through computers that makes sense for this generation."

So what training or learning challenges do you have that might be better solved, even for present generations, let alone those just around the corner, with interactive game based learning? Potential collaborators please click here to be in touch!