Digital Natives - Boyd & Prensky

While reading Boyd’s article I found myself having so many head-nodding, “YES!” moments. As I listened in class today about Prensky’s “Digital Immigrants” vs. “Digital Natives” many of the thoughts brought up by Boyd came to mind and I could not find the words to articulate what I was thinking and she hit it right on the head. When I think about being a native, being a language teacher, I first think of myself, growing up as a native English speaker. As a baby, I was born hearing and eventually speaking English, but it took lots of practice to read and write the language correctly. I can compare this to my own high school students who Prensky might call “Digital Natives.” In a way, these students are very native to having the technology around them and growing up with its presence but they need to have lots of practice to use/produce it correctly, efficiently, and appropriately. 

In my opinion, they do not have a natural born knowledge of how to do this. As Boyd mentions, it is crucial that we educators help students develop their media literacy. My school is 1-1 Chromebooks and students have access to digital media all day long so it is important that students know and understand how to use this powerful device. I will admit that at times I have assumed that students know how to use certain apps and technology better than I did and have let them down by making such an assumption, rather than helping and assisting when they needed me most. There are so many teachable moments as Boyd mentions when referencing Wikipedia that I can incorporate into my classroom going forward.

Boyd mentions the importance of teaching students the critical skills necessary to help use digital media in a more efficient and successful way. For example, she mentions the biases on the internet in articles and advertising, the algorithms in Google searches catered to the user, technical skills and coding, and also the “do NOT use Wikipedia” attitude that many teachers and students possess! I found it incredible that so many students she interviewed took their teacher’s word for it on credibility and trust regarding the internet and also had their own sense of what was credible and trustworthy in cyberspace. How often does a teenager or even an adult for that matter fact check before sharing a quick political meme or a news story? I once had to tell someone on Facebook to click on the article and read the date because it was a story from two years ago and she had shared it again. People thought it was a recent event and were losing their minds… Fact check and read, people! 

One more piece Boyd mentions is the digital inequality, divide, and variation faced by students. Just a few years ago we strayed away from giving students homework that required computers or internet because I knew many students did not have access outside of school. Now, being 1-1, students are doing more work online and at home, though some may not have internet access or wifi at home either. The divide is real and I feel that some students in my school may be embarrassed or ashamed to tell the teacher that they do not have access. The way Boyd described usage and variation makes a ton of sense. The way we access shapes our comfortability and relationship with the technology as well. The correlation between quality of access and socioeconomic status further divides us all.

I do believe (most) of my students are passive digital media users. I believe that of myself as well. I do not intend to create any codes or apps, and the ones I use in both personal and professional life are for enhancing the class lesson or activity to get my students to speak and engage with Spanish language and cultural context. Do I adapt to them or do they adapt to me? Is there a common ground? Can we meet in the middle? This podcast ponders and echos many of the same sentiments I shared.