"The children who attend school today are digital natives who think nothing of learning through the use of technology. As adults, we are digital immigrants who remember lessons delivered through film strips and overhead projectors. In a state where digital pioneers flourished, the educational system should catch up to the students" (Boyd, pg. 176)
The idea of digital natives and digital immigrants is nothing new to me. When I first heard about it, the terminology that was used did make me feel a certain way which connects to the fact that "From an ethnic studies perspective, the language of "natives" and immigrants" is particularly fraught" (pg. 179). But after looking more deeper into the reasoning of being called a native and an immigrant, it made sense to me. An important thing to remember about these terms for me is to think about the context that they are being used in. It is about the culture and language being looked at. The youth is defined as digital natives because that is the language that they are native speakers of. Youth are able to speak fluently in technology, gaming, apps, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, digital immigrants need to be able to learn this language. The idea of these two worlds connecting seems like a bigger picture, but in my eyes, it is the natives who are going to help the immigrants. The digital immigrants are going to be able to learn from the digital natives.
I found it interesting how Boyd discussed the privilege required to be "native". Boyd mentions "it obscures the uneven distribution of technological skills and media literacy across the youth population, presenting an inaccurate portrait of young people as uniformly prepared for the digital era and ignoring the assumed level of privilege required to be "native"" (pg. 180). This is fascinating to me because even within this one term which some could say that we would "group" all youth, there are still differences.
CNN had an article that I found about What does it mean to be a digital native?. The article allowed me to make connections.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I agree with you about societies tendency to group all youth together and I would add that those of us raised before technology was commonplace are also grouped and often viewed as being less tech savvy. I think it is important for us to learn from each other rather than categorize each other.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the article from CNN about Digital Natives. I am wondering how you feel about what Boyd says and what Prensky says about digital natives and digital immigrants. Do you agree with these terms being used? Thanks fro the read!