Boyd and Prensky

                             

Prompt: 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?

When we were in class and Dr. Bogad presented the idea of a Digital Native and Digital Immigrant, it made complete sense and I easily identified myself as a Digital Native for the second required post on this blog. After reading chapter 7 of Boyd’s It’s Complicated and skimmed parts of Prensky’s Digital Native, Digital Immigrants, I feel more caught in the middle than I did in class.  I can see where Prensky is coming from: those of us born in a certain window of time grew up with much more digital technology than those that came before us.  We know how to use these technologies from a very young age and much of what we know about one device can transfer to the latest of devices. Perhaps we are “Digital Natives” in the physical manipulation of technology. However, just as native English speakers should be familiar with the workings of the English language (morphology, semantics, syntax, phonology, pragmatics, the history of the English language), so should we be familiar with the technology we use. As I wrote above, and as Boyd states throughout chapter 7, we know how to use the devices and navigate them, but not necessarily think about the factors at play: how apps work, which sites are “reputable” and what makes them so, how a Google search works and these are essential if we are to be effective, participating citizens in a digital world.  Boyd (2014) writes “most people have little training in being critical of the content that they consume” (p. 181). This couldn’t be more true! As I was reading his description of the “Discussion” section of Wikipedia, I immediately accepted it as fact. Until I started writing this post. I just had to pause my writing for 5 minutes to VERIFY that what he wrote was true about the debate between "insurgents" and "patriots". I couldn’t, in good faith, continuing writing without doing what he is saying we don’t do enough of!

I am now not so sure we should be using the term “Digital Native” the way Prensky has proposed we use it.  As Boyd says, there are “dangerous” implications if we use the term “Digital Native” without discretion (p. 197). The term does not account for the spectrum of abilities, access and privileges that every Net Gen person possesses and assumes that every Net Gen person’s experience with technology has been identical.  It also leads to assumptions that a Net Gen is able to think critically about the technology they are using, when this is not the case. We, as teachers, cannot assume that this ability comes naturally to our students and need to push for more media literacy courses so that they are not passively accepting what they see on their screens but rather critique and analyze for themselves.  

References

Boyd, D. (2014). It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. New Haven, CT: Yale

University Press.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, vol 9 (5). p. 1-6.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JcBFAuLc-0Z01KNkdIWjdsNk0/view

I Am a Digital Native

I would consider myself a Digital Native even though I grew up in the 1990s.  I remember our home computer and monitor being a gigantic mass on our kitchen countertop and my first camera had the old-school roll of film that I had to go and get developed and hope that I got some good pictures since I could not see them on a screen like we do today on our phone's or digital cameras. My first cell-phone was a flip-phone which used minutes and the luxury of internet on the phone was something my parents paid extra for (and I would get in trouble for using it!).  Despite growing up with what would today be considered "limited" technology, I am familiar with today's technology and very adept at using it.  As discussed in class, I am capable of parallel processing: I often have my computer and phone out, have music on and am doing homework or work at the same time.  I rarely go anywhere without my phone.  But there are times I do make the conscious choice of not having so much going on at the same time.  In classes, I make the choice to take notes on paper, rather than online because I know there are benefits of taking notes by hand.  I chose a Master's program that was almost 100% in person because I know that I do best when I am in a classroom setting with other people rather than a classroom from behind a computer screen.  Even though I am a Digital Native, I grew up in a time when technology was still developing and was not as available so I am able to "power down" and be more flexible than a lot of my students when it comes to technology and self-restricting my use of it. 

A Little About Me

My name is Helen Schoonmaker and I am currently working on my M.Ed. in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) at Rhode Island College.  I have just gotten through half of the Master's program and am very excited about everything I have learned so far.  I work in Fall River, Massachusetts at a community school (PreK-8) as the ESL pull-out teacher for grades 4 through 8.  

If you were to ask any of my students how they would describe me, they would immediately tell you I am the "Crazy Duck Lady" and start telling you all about the duck paraphernalia in my classroom: the inflatable duck, the duck cutouts I use to track their progress, random pictures of ducks, a duck candy jar and the seasonal rubber ducks I put out throughout the year. 

Summer vacation has just started for us and I am planning on going on some mini-road trips with my sister and spending some time with my ducks whose names are Summer, Daffy, Rosemary, Pearl and Squishy, pictured below!  When I am not in class, I am playing piano, reading, or outside in my family's suburban farm.