Engl. transl.: Children in mobile culture. Participation, learning and emancipation of "digital natives"

The exposure of children and young people to technology is strongly affecting the way in which society develops. The authors explore the notions introduced by Marc Prensky – digital natives and digital immigrants, to identify and describe the gap in the way two generations deal with technology and internet. The authors examine the patterns of children’s learning, cognition and action within the digital culture and propose the notion of “digital refugees” as a new metaphor relevant to change the way of thinking about technology and its socio-cultural role.

The authors point out that when we reflect on the most accurate convention describing the relationship between people and technology, we get involved in generational discussions. In the article, they ask if our ways of seeing, talking and teaching about information technology would change if we - instead of discussing digital natives and digital immigrants - we will talk about "digital refugees" whose survival, development and life opportunities are intertwined with modern mobile infrastructure. In addition, issues of negative and positive use of ICT by children are considered.