2010 Fall NERALLT Conference

The Digital Native Language Learners are Here: How Do We Effectively Teach Language to the Digital Native?

October 21st-22nd, 2010

College of the Holy Cross Worcester, Massachusetts

(Presentation events on Friday, October 22, 2010)

When Marc Prensky coined the phrase in 2001 'Digital Native' in his article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", he identified a new type of learner that had found their way onto higher ed and K-12 campuses. From birth, they have been surrounded by the toys and tools of the digital age such as smartphones, laptops, the web and video games. Most of us reading this call fall into the "Digital Immigrant" category. This new world of technology has not been a part of our entire lives. With this gap in experience inevitably comes a gap in expectations between educators and students.Acknowledging their arrival is one crucial step towards closing the gap in understanding between the digital native learners and the digital immigrants teaching. Next follows the question, "How do we effectively teach language to the digital native?" In order to continue providing excellence in language programs, there needs to be a critical look at how digital natives acquire, consolidate, process, and utilize information and knowledge. This is key to wisely investing in electronic resources and instructional technologies for these learners. In turn, this understanding will assist language faculty in modifying their pedagogy to optimize the language learning potential of these new learners.As language educators, administrators and instructional technologist work to balance the needs and preferences of these 'digital natives' with the mission and standards of college and university language curricula, the time has come to move beyond the identification of the digital native language learner and to address their learning needs actively. To this end, the New England Regional Association for Language Learning and Technology will devote its 2010 fall conference to showcasing the innovative ways that educators use instructional technology to engage our digital natives in learning languages and how best to maintain their and enthusiasm and momentum. The program committee is extending a call for papers and posters in which language faculty and instructional technologists share the strategies and instructional technologies that will energize our students to learn languages while fostering the intellectual capacities needed to excel. College and university language faculty, language resources specialists are invited to contribute results of their practical experience and research to help map out how technology used to optimize success in achieving the intellectual objectives of language learning programs in higher education.