Chapter 7
What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky (per our discussion in class and/or per the article above?) Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology?
After reading both Boyd and Prensky's positions in addition to what we covered in class, I have to say that they both have good points. Before class today I would have sided with Prensky's position but after our class conversation and reading other blog posts, I agree more with Boyd.
Boyd's position on children really stuck out to me. Not only does she know that children are into digital media, specifically social media, but she also understands that they are just kids. Although kids are usually able to use apps, smart phones, and search the web, they are not intelligent critical thinkers are their ages. They still need guidance and support from adults. This is because everything on the internet is not good and not true. Some students can get mislead by information that find online.
Prensky thinks that the older generation of people are all digital immigrants and the children are digital natives. In many cases this may be true, but not all. Just because a child is growing up with all of this technology around them, it does not mean they know how to properly use it. On the other hand, just because a person may be older and did not grow up with all of this technology does not make them unintelligent or incapable of using digital media.
Overall, I do believe that digital media is our new norm. Not only are young "digital natives" using media, but also older "digital natives." Why do we need to categorize people? Our so called "digital immigrants" were also still growing up/living while this new technology has been coming out. So aren't they "natives" too?
After reading both Boyd and Prensky's positions in addition to what we covered in class, I have to say that they both have good points. Before class today I would have sided with Prensky's position but after our class conversation and reading other blog posts, I agree more with Boyd.
Boyd's position on children really stuck out to me. Not only does she know that children are into digital media, specifically social media, but she also understands that they are just kids. Although kids are usually able to use apps, smart phones, and search the web, they are not intelligent critical thinkers are their ages. They still need guidance and support from adults. This is because everything on the internet is not good and not true. Some students can get mislead by information that find online.
I wrote something very similar in my post about the perceived abilities of "digital natives." Many of us know how to manipulate the physical devices; our students certainly do even at very young ages! But like you said, at their ages, they don't know how to think critically about the media they are consuming. Some ADULTS don't even know how to and I think it is something critical that we need to address with the expansion of the technology available to and around us.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog especially the memes as they reminded me of my parents. I know how difficult it is for the older generation to navigate things and sometimes I get very frustrated with them, especially my mother! She calls with questions that seem common sense or make no sense but I find myself seeking out my tech savvy daughter to answer my technology questions and I'm sure she feel the same way. I agree with you that we are all just in different phases between digital immigrant and digital native.
ReplyDeleteWe forget that, as you said, these digital natives are "just kids." Why would we assume that since they understand how to navigate technological systems, that they would automatically have critical thinking and other higher order skills needed to comprehend internet texts and images?
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