Are they really digital natives?
I am starting to wonder how many of my kids are really "digital natives." It seems to me that an awful lot of them really don't know what's on the Internet (besides myspace) and they don't really know how to transfer skills in one program or website to another. My kids were totally confused by blogger. Is this normal? I sort of overestimated their ability to figure out how to use a site because I thought they'd spent their lives on the computer so.... I'm just curious. Is this something the rest of you see often? Kids who fit into that "digital native" category, but really aren't digitally native? I'm almost wondering if it's something adults are pushing onto the kids because we can see what's out there to use. Thoughts?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Aldrich on
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Great question! To me, "digital native" describes a set of experiences that is common among many children, but it's not a badge they get just by having been born in the 1990's. Digital natives, because of their experiences (early, consistent exposure to highly engaging, personal technology), have certain expectations and skill sets, but as you point out it can't be assumed they have an innate ability to master every technological tool or know every website. It's like the Internet is a city they grew up in, but they only hang out at a few places and are only minimally aware of other neighborhoods.
Other children who have not had consistent exposure to the same types of technology are not "digital natives" in my view.
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Potter on
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Yes! Absolutely. They know myspace and that is it. They can't find anything and feel that the first google result is the right one. Very little critical thinking, little analysis. I'd love to hear some suggestions on how to change this attitude.
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Permalink Reply by Barry Bakin on
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If you search for "fake websites" or "evaluating websites" you'll find lot's of resources that you can use to introduce the idea that there is a lot of misinformation on the internet. Here's one resource that provides tools for determining if a website is from a valid source. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
Here's another one: http://www.iccb.state.il.us/student/pdf/resource/web_lit.pdf written by Judy Salpeter that apparently originally appeared in Technology and Learning Magazine.
It's not only kids, I just read about a couple of tourists who tried to find a bunch of fake tourist attractions because they had visited a site http://city-mankato.us/ that was created back in 1996 by a professor trying to teach students about the same topic. In a story dated August 22, 2007 the Mankato Freepress tells the story of the unfortunate pair. http://www.mankato-freepress.com/local/local_story_234002321.html
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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on
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Great discussion topic, Amy.
I think they are digital natives--in the sense that my kids know how to handle electronics in a natural way that means they will never be accused of "not knowing how to program the VCR." And I think you are also right--that their knowledge tends to be surface-level, and not very broad. I learned this while teaching a Web 2.0 class to my kids and their friends. They can figure out how to send a photo from their cell phone to someone else, but that doesn't mean they know the first thing about how it is done.
And so, for me, their "nativity" manifests itself in approaching technology with more of a willingness to integrate these tools into their lives than their parents or grandparents have. But they 1) need to learn how to drill deeper and learn more, and 2) need to help in understanding that you can have an abundance of information and options, but getting at the truth and communicating with clarity are still hard work.
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Permalink Reply by Ed Jones on
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The term may have more to do with attention span.... :-)
But let's go back to learning modalities. If I'm a kinetic/audio learner, the web may be a great place to expand relationships and explore music, but blogs and wikis not such a great thing.
I know a lot of adults (including teachers) who still see email as an incoming service, with the added function of occasionally forwarding something funny, gross, or heart wrenching. For these people, just returning a "thanks" or "message received" seems beyond their consideration. )Often, my digital native nephews seem to fall in this category as well).
Also, digital native isn't entirely a good thing. I can use the web as a research tool because I have explored huge sections of the 4 million volume U.Ill. library, with its Dewey and L.O.C. categorization. Exploring and learning categoires via the web isn't always so easy.
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Permalink Reply by Lucia Mourelle on
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Thanks, Mathew
I completly agree with your opinions and I also agree with Steve about their superficiality, they can have a poor vocabulary on this language but they are native speakers!no accent when they speak!
Un abrazo desde Buenos Aires!
Lucia
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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on
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The digital native/digital immigrant labels have been used for a couple of years now and I think they do as much harm as good. Thinking of kids as digital natives is just used an excuse to not use technology in the classroom. And being a "digital immigrant" was an easy excuse for not a teacher not to learn technology. I think those days are over!
Kids need adults to guide them to use these tools wisely, and for appropriate academic purposes. A teacher can take them further and faster. Kids are less afraid of technology, and don't usually worry about breaking things, but this doesn't translate to intellectual curiousity. They are just used to having technology around, but also more than willing to just ignore it when it isn't immediately obvious what to do with it.
We adults tend to want to find a use for anything and everything, or worry that we aren't doing something "right." I don't think that has anything to do with technology, and is certainly not new to this generation.
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As usual, Sylvia weighs in with some real wisdom. :)
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Permalink Reply by Alex Savage on
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Spot on Sylvia!
My students claim to be digital natives, but when you start asking them about how much they use rss feeds, social bookmarking, collaboration tools and even downloading podcasts you begin to realise how limited their use of the internet really is.
I totally agree that teachers have a new and significant role to play in guiding students in how to use these tools more effectively to find better quality information on the web.
We also need to teach them about how to present themselves and their ideas better. I've started putting up edublog posts on various issues and invited students to share their ideas as moderated comments. If you'd like to see an example go to http://notreblog.edublogs.org/category/film-reviews/
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Robitaille on
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Hi Amy. I am also amazed at times when I introduce new concepts to my students, such as blogs and wikis, only to have blank stares when I explain this new technology. Like you, I thought they knew this stuff already. I thought they ran home and did it all the time. We're wrong, though. They do run home and visit MySpace. They do program their iPods, play with their game consoles and generally engage a lot with technology. But their use of technology is mostly entertainment based. Unless we're talking Runescape or ringtones, the technology we teach our students about in schools may very well be new to them. I accept this now and also realize that I am in a role to teach them how to engage in collaborative, online technologies in productive, academic ways. These digital natives always will need quality teachers to guide them along their journey. We haven't become obsolete yet!
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Permalink Reply by Ellen on
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Hi Matthew,
I feel compelled to comment on your comments, specifically:
"digital natives" if you like the term are disproportionately white and middle class. Sorry, this is not accurate by definition or anecdotally. And my anecdotal commentary:
The African American community in the United States are considered early-adopters when it comes to technology. What do I mean by this? In the early 1980's pagers or beepers where primarily carried and used by physicians, and that includes doctors working in emergency care centers. In an effort to communicate rapidly with family in case of emergencies, the African American community followed suit and wIth the advent of mobile phones, people quickly adopted the use of this communication tool.
Recent research tells us that most children have access to and use the Internet. In fact, 97% of U.S. college students have a profile on Facebook.
I tend to be hyper-vigilant about my word choices, so please remember this is only my two-cents (and as I often remind people, this is often exactly what it is worth). I suggest shying away from generalizations such as, "there is a question of equity of access" and "the same kind of access that 'WE do.'"
Focusing on the following in teaching and learning may be most beneficial across audiences and communities:
(1) How to use the Internet and
(2) Adaptation of mobile teaching and learning applications.
Respectfully,
Ellen
Who, after all that, is loving the rich dialogue and commenting from home in my pajamas.
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Permalink Reply by Laura Gibbs on
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Students v. Instructors and Digital Natives - I really enjoyed your post here, Amy, and reading the many comments. Here's my take on this: I spend many hours at the beginning of every semester helping 100 students get started blogging and publishing webpages. For almost all of the students, it is a first, and whatever skills they have acquired from other web adventures, they are scared and intimidated by new things, as most human beings are. But... within a few weeks, they are blogging and publishing webpages like mad and VERY proud of themselves, and I am proud of them, too! It's worth my time, every minute of it, to help them get started. Once they are publishing online, I am no longer the center of attention and can retire to the sidelines and just cheer their efforts, helping them to learn without dominating the discussion, since they are able to carry on the discussion virtually amongst themselves, sharing their efforts equally online.
My experience with my colleagues has been completely different. I've also tried to help hundreds of my colleagues over the years get started with blogging and web publishing, Out of those hundreds of people (all those workshops, all those one-on-one sessions... eegad, so much time I spent doing that!), I've had a handful of success stories. That's it. As a result, I've decided it is not a good use of my time, and I no longer do workshops etc. for instructors at my school.
So this is what I think is important about the digital native category, fuzzy as it is. The students are READY to learn and it is worth teaching them any and all web skills. The faculty, on the other hand, often have a lack of vision about this, a lack of vision that prevents them from being able to really ACQUIRE skills and make them their own. The students have the vision, if not the skills - and they are absolutely ready to learn!
I love working with students on blogging and web publishing, even though it can indeed be very time-consuming. Over time, though, my instructions and tips and FAQs have gotten more and more detailed, thanks to the questions students ask me when they have problems, so now my efforts are focused more on writing up instructions for new technologies, since the web publishing and blogging instructions I've prepared for them seem to take care of most questions... for students who willing to read instructions, of course. :-)
Every semester blogging and publishing websites with the students is an adventure - a great adventure. I cannot imagine teaching without the digital space that we can share this way.
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