Exploring Technology Professional Development Needs of Digital Immigrant Teachers and Digital Native Teachers in China

2. Literature Review

The concept of digital generation gap was first proposed by Prensky (2001a), who identified two demographic groups based on the level of technology immersion. The digital natives were people born after 1980, grew up immersed in technologies, and thus possessed a high level of ability to use technologies; and the digital immigrants were those born before 1980, grew up without modern information and communication technologies and as a result lacked the experiences and or ability to use technology (Prensky, 2001a; Ransdell, Kent, Gaillard- Kenney, & Long, 2011). Prensky (2001b) pointed out digital natives were comfortable, confident, and more positive towards technology use than digital immigrants because they grew up with easy access to computers, the Internet and other ubiquitous ICT devices. On the other hand, digital immigrants have seen an emergence of new technologies, and had to interact with them later in their lives. They learnt to adapt the new technology environment, and they retained, to some degree, their traditional habits (Prensky, 2001b).