Digital Native, Schmative

After much resistance, I've decided to jump in the "blog pool" and finally comment. Not that I don't follow blogs, mind you, I've just never felt the overwhelming need to comment. I've just been enjoying the conversation as a "lurker" as we are so often called. And that segues right into what my topic is today, labels.

I detest labels and don’t like being labeled. This resentment of labels reared its ugly head again when someone recently referred to me as a Digital Immigrant. Sigh. It seems people have been trying to label me ever since the label Baby Boomer was created. I think the resentment lies in the fact that in some cases I fall into the Baby Boomer category and in others I do not. It depends on what expert defines who is or is not a Boomer. My birth date is in that grey area. So I’ve spent my life with those firmly rooted in the Baby Boomer category either telling me I am or am not a fellow Boomer. Frankly, I don’t care. I share some of the traits of a Boomer but thankfully, not all. Thus, this is the root of my label resentment. I don’t fit into one neat category.

So, back to the Digital Native subject. From what I gleaned from online sources, the term “Digital Native” was coined by Marc Prensky in an article published in October 2001. Mr. Prensky is “an internationally acclaimed thought leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and game designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001), founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company.” Quoted from On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001). According to Mr. Prensky’s definitions of Digital Native and Digital Immigrant, I am neither. In order to make sure, I also took a quiz entitled “Are you a digital native” that I found on the DigitalNative.org, a website produced and maintained by Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen. According to the quiz, I’m 50% Digital Native. Sigh. Alas, no label for me.

All of this reaffirms what I knew already. Even though I was born in the sixties, I embraced computer technology as soon as it was made available to me, somewhere around 1977 or 78. And I haven’t looked back since. I purchased a desktop computer as soon as I could afford it (1990) and dialed up OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) immediately. This was the only online access of information I could get at the time. I’ve owned dozens of computers since, have taken apart and rebuilt my own computers, have been “surfing the web” since 1993, and spent seven years in the eighties and nineties teaching adults all over the country how to use computers and software. I shop for everything online including items such as cat food, shampoo, makeup, coffee, cooking utensils, pots, pans, electronics, bed sheets, pillows, clothing…you name it, I’ve bought it online. I made purchases on eBay in its infancy. I can find anything on the web; just ask anyone who knows me. I have a MySpace page, a Facebook page and subscribe to several blogs through RSS feeds. The only television programming I watch I have recorded on my DVR. I have taken dozens of online classes and I met my husband online through a dating service. I am more technically savvy then most of those who qualify as Digital Natives.

Now, finally, this brings me to my point. The current trend in education is to reach and teach Digital Natives. That is good in that educators are looking to learn how to best teach our current constituency. What is bad, however, is that we’ve lumped all students of a certain age into one single category. And while some do qualify as Digital Natives, others most decidedly do not or maybe only 50%. Mr. Prensky makes his living creating and selling digital games for education. How much credence should we give him and his definitions? Are we over-reacting as we did with the first generation to grow up with television? According to “studies” at the time, the first generation to grow up with television was going to end up generally stupid and violent (I’m one of that generation, by the way). According to experts, our attention spans were shortened by the viewing of television, and we weren’t able learn like our parents did. Televisions were brought into the classroom so we could watch videos rather than movies or filmstrips. Did it help? I’m not sure. I have to admit, that while I watched a lot of television, I also read just as much and I am far from stupid and violent.

So, what is the answer to how we teach the students of today? Textbooks or no textbooks? Video games? Twitter? Blogs? Wikis? Online or face-to-face? I’m not sure. My approach is to try and see but not abandon what has worked for me in my classroom in the past. We have to avoid the “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” approach. I’ve watched both my sons suffer though an education system that totally re-invents itself every two or so years, sometimes with devastating consequences. Some teachers are so focused on the most current, trendy method; they throw out some methods that are proven to work in order to be considered up-to-the-minute with their teaching. As if adopting something that is trendy at the time makes up for truly assessing their methods over time and making adjustments as needed.

Here is a quote I found that pretty much sums up how I feel about teaching and teachers. "A good teacher can teach with nothing more than a stick to write with in the dirt," author unknown. I strive to be that kind of teacher.