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.
