<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><bold>Background:</bold> The term digital natives refer to those born since the 1980s and have been growing up surrounded by technology. On the other hand, digital immigrants are born before 1980s and learned how to use technology later in life. <bold>Objectives:</bold> Goal of the paper is to explore attitudes of digital native students on the course of Business Informatics at higher educational institutions (HEIs), and to compare them with attitudes of digital immigrants. <bold>Methods/Approach:</bold> The survey was conducted in 2014 using the sample of first-year Business Informatics students from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb, Croatia. Results were compared with a research conducted in 1998. <bold>Results:</bold> In comparison to an earlier research, digital natives perceive their level of competency in the subject of Business Informatics before teaching practices much higher compared to digital immigrants. However, there is still an increase in digital native students’ level of competency in the subject before and after teaching practices. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> The research confirms a shift from digital immigrants to digital natives who show high level of interest for Business Informatics course topics and find its utility very high. However, constant improvement of delivering knowledge is needed in order to keep these high levels.</p></abstract>

Background: The term digital natives refer to those born since the 1980s and have been growing up surrounded by technology. On the other hand, digital immigrants are born before 1980s and learned how to use technology later in life. Objectives: Goal of the paper is to explore attitudes of digital native students on the course of Business Informatics at higher educational institutions (HEIs), and to compare them with attitudes of digital immigrants. Methods/Approach: The survey was conducted in 2014 using the sample of first-year Business Informatics students from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb, Croatia. Results were compared with a research conducted in 1998. Results: In comparison to an earlier research, digital natives perceive their level of competency in the subject of Business Informatics before teaching practices much higher compared to digital immigrants. However, there is still an increase in digital native students’ level of competency in the subject before and after teaching practices. Conclusions: The research confirms a shift from digital immigrants to digital natives who show high level of interest for Business Informatics course topics and find its utility very high. However, constant improvement of delivering knowledge is needed in order to keep these high levels.

Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives: Learning Business Informatics at Higher Educational Level

Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Business Systems Research Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Background: The term digital natives refer to those born since the 1980s and have been growing up surrounded by technology. On the other hand, digital...

Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives: Learning Business Informatics at Higher Educational Level

Published Online: Sep 10, 2014

Page range: 84 - 96

Received: Jan 12, 2014

Accepted: May 25, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2014-0012

Keywords
digital natives, digital immigrants, information technology education, education improvement, business informatics

© 2014 Dalia Suša

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives: Learning Business Informatics at Higher Educational Level

Published Online: Sep 10, 2014

Page range: 84 - 96

Received: Jan 12, 2014

Accepted: May 25, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2014-0012

Keywordsdigital natives, digital immigrants, information technology education, education improvement, business informatics

© 2014 Dalia Suša

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
digital natives, digital immigrants, information technology education, education improvement, business informatics