Readings:
- Danah Boyd, from It’s Complicated Chapter 7: Are Today’s Youth Digital Natives?
- Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
My
Divergent Native? Divergent Immigrant?
Who is the teacher? Who is the learner?
What I make of the "divergent" positions of Boyd and Prensky:
- It makes sense that their opinions are different.
- Prensky's article was published in 2001
- Boyd's book: copywrite date was 2014
- Social Media's from 2001 to 2014 (and even present day)has evolved, multiplied and become much more prevalent and accessible.
- Social Media time line: https://www.infoplease.com/science/timeline-social-media
- "As new technologies emerge to enable people to access infor- mation, the issues brought forth by media literacy and technological familiarity intersect to create new challenges. Empowering youth requires much more than calling them native participants."
- I feel the above quote from Chapter 7 in Boyd's "It's Complicated" expresses why he disagrees with using the terms originated by Prensky: "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants".
- Boyd feels that in order for a Digital Native to be a true Native he/she will have an understanding of the algorithms of the search agents and how to navigate expertly while surfing the Web to obtain "real" facts and avoid "fake" facts.
- Boyd says when it comes to differentiating "real" from "fake" they listen to the adults as opposed to understanding how the information is put on the Web.
I like the terms: Digital Native and Digital Immigrant.
Just like children acquiring a new language, the meaning of the words develop over time. The more proficient we become with our language, the more meaning we derive from it and the better we can use it more accurately. This comes with experience and guidance from our more knowledgeable others.
As a Teacher of English Language Learners we do not have to be proficient in the Native Language of the student in order to teach and guide students to achieve proficiency in the "new" language. We just need to provide students with the tools, an environment of comfort, opportunities, and guide the learners. It's a form of translanguaging in the technological world.
Boyd gives us great information on the "how" the Google Search agent is engineered and of the usefulness of Wikipedia. Both sound like perfect tools for us to utilize as teachers to our Digital Natives regardless of our own "Digital" label. With the textbooks of yesterday becoming obsolete so is the content they held.
Doesn't the digital world provide us with the resources we need to read information, research our sources, and develop our critical analytical skills to learn, formulate our own opinions, and truly learn?
I like your take on the terms. In my post, I wrote about how a "Native" should understand the mechanics behind their language (be in English or Digital Media) but you also make a good point that it is like our emergent bilinguals. Those of us that are not "native speakers" of digital media can use a digital form of translanguaging in order to teach our students.
ReplyDeleteI also hadn't taken into account the copyright dates which certainly accounts, in part, for the extreme differences in opinion between Boyd and Prensky.
Dawn,
ReplyDeleteLike Helen, I didn't realize the dates between Boyd and Prensky and I have to say I wish I had read your post first and I am going to use it for my notes. I was found the information about Wikipedia interesting and it changed the way I will approach it as a source in the future. I may even use it as a lesson to teach students how to investigate sources and information for validity.
It is unbelievable how technology has progressed in 13 years, a rather short time when one thinks about it. It was an interesting to use time as a way to compare the views of Boyd and Prensky.
ReplyDelete