So how good is your thumb coordination? Do you function best when networked with others, prefer graphics before text, or learn most succesfully when listening to music? Do you read a software manual instead of assuming the progam will teach you how to use it? The answers to these questions, along with the obvious question of your age, can determine if you are a digital native or digital immigrant.

The discussion of these types was introduced for public debate by educational gaming entrepreneur Marc Prensky in 2001 in his two-part (1:2) investigation of how students have "radically changed" as the result of pervasive digital technologies. Prensky states that "as digital immigrants learn — like all immigrants some better than others — to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their 'accent', that is, their foot in the past."  Five years later the debate rages on.

A July, 2006 Sunday Times report on "The next step in brain evolution" asks the question:

"Where is it all leading? Only one thing seems clear: changes propelled by the digital world are just beginning. Indeed, one of the markers between the natives and the immigrants — it’s not simply a question of age — is the intuitive acceptance of rapid digital change."

But there are plenty of critics of these categories of description. Tim Stahmer, learning technology specialist for a school district in Washington DC writes in his blog Assorted Stuff: "I think it’s just about time to retire the whole digital native/digital immigrant analogy ... lately I've been thinking it's become an impediment to the discussion of how to use technology for teaching and learning. "