The ���digital natives��� debate: A critical review of the evidence Sue Bennett, Karl Maton and Lisa Kervin Sue Bennett is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong. Karl Maton is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. Lisa Kervin is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong. Address for correspondence: Sue Bennett, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia. Email: sue_bennett@uow.edu.au Abstract The idea that a new generation of students is entering the education system has excited recent attention among educators and education commentators. Termed ���digital natives��� or the ���Net generation���, these young people are said to have been immersed in technology all their lives, imbuing them with sophisti- cated technical skills and learning preferences for which traditional education is unprepared. Grand claims are being made about the nature of this genera- tional change and about the urgent necessity for educational reform in response. A sense of impending crisis pervades this debate. However, the actual situation is far from clear. In this paper, the authors draw on the fields of education and sociology to analyse the digital natives debate. The paper pre- sents and questions the main claims made about digital natives and analyses the nature of the debate itself. We argue that rather than being empirically and theoretically informed, the debate can be likened to an academic form of a ���moral panic���. We propose that a more measured and disinterested approach is now required to investigate ���digital natives��� and their implications for education. The one thing that does not change is that at any and every time it appears that there have been ���great changes���. Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove Introduction Commentators on education are arguing that a new generation of learners is entering our educational institutions, one which has grown up with information and commu- nication technology (ICT) as an integral part of their everyday lives. It is claimed these young people���s use of ICTs differentiates them from previous generations of students and from their teachers, and that the differences are so significant that the nature of British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 39 No 5 2008 775���786 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00793.x �� 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation �� 2007 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

education itself must fundamentally change to accommodate the skills and interests of these ���digital natives��� (Prensky, 2001a). We shall argue that though such calls for major change in education are being widely propounded, they have been subjected to little critical scrutiny, are undertheorised, and lack a sound empirical basis. There is thus a pressing need for theoretically informed research. In this paper, we bring together educational research and the sociology of knowledge to provide an analysis of the current state of play in the digital natives debate. We begin by setting out the main claims made in the debate. Second, we explore the assumptions underlying these claims and the consequent arguments for educational change, high- lighting the limited nature of the research evidence on which they are based. Third, we consider why such poorly evidenced claims have gained widespread currency by anal- ysing the nature of the debate itself. This highlights how principal positions have created the academic equivalent of a ���moral panic��� that restricts critical and rational debate. Lastly, we argue that the debate as currently formulated is at an impasse, and the way forward requires a research agenda capable of providing a sound basis on which future debate and policymaking can be founded. Claims about ���digital natives��� The generation born roughly between 1980 and 1994 has been characterised as the ���digital natives��� (Prensky, 2001a) or the ���Net generation��� (Tapscott, 1998) because of their familiarity with and reliance on ICT.They are described as living lives immersed in technology, ���surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age��� (Prensky, 2001a, p. 1). Social researchers Howe and Strauss (2000, 2003), labelled this genera- tion the ���millenials���, ascribing to them distinct characteristics that set them apart from previous generations. They offer a positive view of this new generation as optimistic, team-oriented achievers who are talented with technology, and claim they will be America���s next ���great generation���. Immersion in this technology-rich culture is said to influence the skills and interests of digital natives in ways significant for education. It is asserted, for example, that digital natives learn differently compared with past generations of students.They are held to be active experiential learners, proficient in multitasking, and dependent on communica- tions technologies for accessing information and for interacting with others (Frand, 2000 Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005 Prensky, 2001a, b Tapscott, 1999). Commentators claim these characteristics raise fundamental questions about whether education is currently equipped to meet the needs of this new cohort of students. Tapscott (1998), for example, described education in developed countries as already in crisis with more challenges to come: ���There is growing appreciation that the old approach [of didactic teaching] is ill-suited to the intellectual, social, motivational, and emotional needs of the new generation��� (p. 131). This was echoed by Prensky���s (2001a) claim that: ���Our students have changed radically. Today���s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach��� [emphasis in original] (p. 1). 776 British Journal of Education Technology Vol 39 No 5 2008 �� 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation �� 2007 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.