"Digital Natives: Reflecting on the Myth"

The Digital Native, Digital Wisdom, and the Digitally Enhanced Human

Forward –

A quote from the forward that provoked some thought for me was, “Many so-called digital natives are no more intensive users of digital media than many so-called digital immigrants.”

I guess it didn’t take too much time and thought for me to realize that this is true.  Adults over 25 use digital media and technology all the time.  I think we just have the impression that young people are using digital media all the time, and more than older people do, because that’s something we see in public.  Many young people are on smartphones constantly, but older people are using these tools too, maybe just not in as public a way.

Chapter 1 –

A quote that I found interesting in Chapter 1 was “Advocates of technology integration in education attempt to understand the discourses that drive it and, in some cases, harm its acceptance, and find a balance between the technological innovations that can be sustained by sound pedagogy and those driven more by commercial interests.” 

When I read this, it made me think immediately of a ridiculous little technology tool (that shall remain nameless) that all of the English teachers in our school district were given a few years ago.  We went through training on how to use it, and had to make up lesson plans utilizing the tool in our classroom.  It was such a distracting tool, and had so many technical issues, that after one year (or less, in my case) it was no longer used by anybody in my building.  It was not something we requested, and we weren’t given any choices for possible tools to purchase, so we were very disappointed that so much had been invested in a flashy tool that didn’t work well and no one ended up using.

Chapter 2 –

A quote I agreed with from Chapter 2 was, “The distinction is, I think, much more about culture.  It is about younger people’s comfort with digital technology, their belief in its ease, its usefulness, and its being generally benign, and about their seeing technology as a fun ‘partner’ that they can master, without much effort, if they are shown or choose to.”

This is SO true in my classroom.  Kids don’t seem to be intimidated in the least by any technology tool I bring in to use, or ask them to use.  They immediately start trying it out, try to figure it out, click around on it or push buttons.  Most of the time I can’t hold them back enough to follow step-by-step instructions because they’re off and running with it.  And, they get so excited when they see the laptops or iPads in the room, or they know we’re going to the computer lab.  It seems like the exact opposite is true for so many of my fellow teachers.  They hesitate to learn something new, have a pessimistic attitude about training, and in some cases, brag about their technological ineptness.  I also realize that there is a degree of familiarity with technology on the part of young people, and have often gone to my son or daughter to help me with a tech tool.  They tend to find the missing link very quickly and easily, and sometimes will move so fast, I can’t follow what they’re doing!

Chapter 3 –

I’m not sure how I feel about the following quote from Chapter 3, “…in an unimaginably complex future, the digitally unenhanced person, however wise, will not be able to access the tools of wisdom that will be available to even the least wise digitally enhanced human.”  

I supposed it’s true that digitally unenhanced people won’t be able to access certain tools, but I think digitally enhanced, but unwise, people, will not use the tools they have access to.  Wisdom is not something that can appear from nowhere, and the unwise person won’t seek it out unwontedly, whereas the wise person learns from and seeks wisdom, and will realize the wisdom in using the tech tools available to him/her.  It seems like a presumptuous statement to make.

Reflections

I had never though too much about the meaning of the term “digital native,” even though it is a term I’ve used frequently myself.  My thinking has been along the lines of what the author was saying in this book, that we assume that kids know how to use technology instinctively because they’ve been around it all their lives.  I don’t know why I felt that way.  My classroom experiences have shown persistent evidence to the contrary.  I’ve loved computers, technology, and the Internet since they first became regular household items in the 90’s.  Because of this interest, I know more about many tech tools than my peers and my students, and I’m definitely not a digital native. 

The idea of “digital wisdom” is something I will be using regularly in the future.  Without realizing it, this is exactly what I have felt we needed to focus more attention on in schools.  In the same way we teach our students social skills, how to behave, and how to be responsible, they also need guidance and help learning how to use technology wisely, and we need to take that responsibility seriously.  Part of taking it seriously, is making sure we understand the tools ourselves.

I need to get used to the idea of the digitally enhanced person.  The term brings up images of robots, the Terminator, and the Million Dollar Man, although I realize that’s not what the author was referring to. After reading more about the term, I do understand the concept, though, and agree that the future will become so complicated and full of information that a person would be unwise to remain digitally unenhanced.  Technology already has created a global society that is aware of, or has the ability to know, what’s happening in most parts of the world.  Although knowledge is power, it also complicates and makes life much more complex. We all need to learn how to use technology to our advantage in dealing with this complexity, but also make sure we don’t get overwhelmed by it.  That will be, and already it, the challenge.

Thomas, Michael. Deconstructing Digital Natives: Young People, Technology, and the New            Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2011.   

Technobaby

The visual metaphor in "Technobaby" is the idea that children born during the time of technology tools inherently understand and can use them.  Although many digital immigrants may think that the baby holding the iPad in the above picture knows exactly what he/she is doing with it, and how to use it, the reality is that the child has to be taught and shown how to use it...possibly even by a digital immigrant.