Digital Natives’ Academician-Student Relationships

Abstract

Digital natives born with advanced digital media technologies are acknowledged as the first generation of the 21st century. This quantitative study seeks to explore digital natives’ stimuli and perceptions towards technology-oriented academician-student interactions at a major university in North Cyprus amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (N=259 Gen Z learners) in a developing country seem to value the virtualization of academician-student interactions in higher education because digital technologies eliminate the existing and possible communication obstacles between educators and learners especially during the crisis situations. It was underlined that digital natives mostly prefer mobile communication in their lives with the belief that technology facilitates, enhances, enriches and triggers interactions between educators and learners. Hence, digital learners mostly prefer blended education and digital communication because participants claim that digitalization escalates the effectiveness of teaching and communication. Digital-assisted education ascends learners’ self-confidence and desire towards initiating interactions and comprehending the course contents.