Blog Post #1: Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

I remember sitting in an introductory communication course when I first heard my professor used the term "digital native" to describe the generation of students sitting in front of her. I was absolutely flabbergasted by this descriptor being applied to me. Digital native? There was absolutely nothing "native" about my relationship with technology. I had grown up on a weird precipice of technology, wherein we had a communal family computer and early model cell phones, but conventional classroom learning was done with pen on paper and we had strict limits on screen time. I had to learn by trial and error how to use any technology to which I was exposed. I never received any formal training on how to operate so much of the technology I now use everyday, nevermind think critically about the information I gleaned from those interactive experiences.

Ten years later, I have to stop and consider my own implication upon by students that they be digital natives. I can't tell you the number of times this year that I became frustrated because a student was not able to perform some sort of basic digital task. I realize, however, upon reflection that I was essentially applying the same ignorant misnomer to my students as my professor had done to me. How bold of me to assume that my students would just know how to navigate these digital experiences. The sudden transition to online education in March of 2020 cast a harsh light on the digital inequality that exists within our educational framework, and amplified the need to educate not only teachers on how to use it, but our students too.

My own experience with the so-called "digital natives"--my high school students--and examining what was purported to be an intrinsic ability to use these systems has left me in complete disagreement with Prensky's ideas. Boyd ascertains that youth know how to fluently operate social media channels, with which I absolutely agree, but are not fluent in media literacy. They cannot evaluate sources from which they glean information, even if it is a social media channel. It is shocking to me the mirrored nature of my own experience with understanding technology, all these years later. In my case, as a first year teacher, many of my students had incredibly limited exposure to any technology before coming to the United States, and especially not in an educational context where they were expected to learn content and perform academically through these technological channels. When we think about digital literacy in the context of our students, it is imperative to remember their backgrounds and consider how their lived experiences may play a role in their classroom experience. 

The dichotomy of youth as "digital natives" and adults as "digital immigrants" is fraught with ambiguity as well. In which category do I fall? In no way do I possess the social media savvy and dexterity that my students do, but I can critically evaluate scholarly sources for bias and intended audience, while I'm not sure my students could. To me, this even further discredits Prensky's stance, because it considers no in between. Beyond the limiting qualities of the digital native and digital immigrants descriptors, these titles are also incredibly problematic as well. As Boyd points out, "Powerful immigrants have betrayed native populations while destroying their spiritual spaces and asserting power over them." This concept alone should be enough of a driving force for us to change the way we view how we interact with technology, but even further, we need to consider how exclusionary these titles are of unique and varied backgrounds and lived experiences that come with a person's experience with technology.

The reality is--as suggested by Boyd--that adults and youth alike need to receive specialized instruction on the why and how of interacting with technology, and I wholeheartedly agree. We need to reevaluate the way in which we generally assume how a certain individual will interact with technology. I appreciate the way in which Boyd challenged us to not discredit the value of adult interaction with digital media and technology. I am, by providence of my age, "tech savvy," but the reality is that I'm not even confident this blog post will upload correctly, my phone hasn't been updated in months, and I can't get my headphones to connect via Bluetooth to my computer. 

Learning never ends, and certainly not when it comes to technology. I absolutely do believe it is important that we equip our students with the digital literacy skills necessary to thrive in a technology-dependent future, but we cannot equip them properly if we as teachers do not understand how to use to the tools ourselves. I think it would be prudent to engage teachers in more digital media-centered professional development, in an effort to help our kids become more proficient. 

Video about Millennials navigating UX design challenges (2016):