The Myth of the Digital Native?

A few years ago I attended a professional development session hosted by a prominent technology integration expert. As a self-identified technology geek, I listened intently as the speaker focused on the then relatively new terminology of digital natives and immigrants. These terms made sense and I really thought the speaker was on to something. The speaker made the distinction between the two groups and I saw immediately that I “qualified” for the digital native group. I was born in the last thirty years and grew up using all sorts of technology. In fact, I had a cell phone when they were so big they could barely fit into a purse, let alone someone’s pocket. The speaker also pointed out that all of our students today are digital natives and the “older” adults are, by default, digital immigrants.

Although there were many facets of digital natives and immigrants presented, the emphasis was on the fact that digital natives just got “it” when it came to the use of technology. In turn, digital immigrants were technology illiterate. As a teacher, I initially bought into this idea. My students were usually very comfortable with the use of technology and many so-called digital immigrants I worked with often seemed uncomfortable with technology. However, once I dug deeper I discovered this was not really the case. I began to believe that the idea of digital natives and immigrants was a myth. Sure, my students were definitely comfortable with technology; they definitely got “it.” I could give them almost any piece of technology and they could easily figure it out. They preferred texting to writing and could speak in the language of technology without a problem. When it came to using technology effectively and for academic purposes, however, my students struggled.

Because of my assumption that my students just “got” technology, I used to do very little to explicitly teach the use of academic technology. I assumed that if I asked students to create a blog or use other Web 2.0 tools that they would just get “it.” This was rarely the case and my thinking began to change regarding the need for more explicit instruction about not only the integration of technology, but also the proper use of it.

 In the years since I first heard about digital natives and immigrants, I have developed some of my own thoughts about how to approach the myth of the digital native. I use the following “guidelines” when thinking about my own approach to technology integration in my own classroom:

1. Don’t make assumptions about how much students know (or don’t know) about technology.
2. Assess where students are before you do anything else.
3. Embrace technology even if you don’t “get” it.
4. Capitalize on what students know about technology and let them teach each other. This goes for the adults too!
5. Use social media tools such as Twitter as professional development so that you can connect with other educators about technology integration.