A digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technologies and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts. Alternatively, this term can describe people born during or after the 2000s, as the Digital Age began at that time; but in most cases, the term focuses on people who grew up with the technology that became prevalent in the latter part of the 20th century and continues to evolve today.[citation needed]
Other discourse identifies a digital native as a person who understands the value of digital technology and uses this to seek out opportunities for implementing it with a view to make an impact.
This term has been used in several different contexts, such as education (Bennett, Maton & Kervin 2008), higher education(Jones & Shao 2011) and in association with the term New Millennium Learners (OECD 2008). The opposite of digital native is digital immigrant, an individual who was born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it to some extent later in life.
Marc Prensky coined the term digital native in his work "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" published in 2001. In his seminal article, he assigns it to a new group of students enrolling in educational establishments.[1] More recently, Description of people who were "born digital", first appeared in a series of presentations given by Josh Spear beginning in May 2007.[2][3]A Digital Native research project[4] is being run jointly by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law Schooland the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. A collaborative research project[5]is being run by Hivos, Netherlands and the Bangalore based Centre for Internet and Society.[6] The Net Generation Encountering e-learning at university project[7] funded by the UK research councils was completed in March 2010. More recently the Museum of Social Media,[8] launched in 2012, has included an exhibit on "Digital Natives & Friends."