Assignment #1: What do you make of the positions of Boyd and Prensky regarding the topic of digital immigrants versus digital native?  Where do I stand on the digital native terminology? 

First in order, to respond to either of these questions, I need to define the terms Digital Native and Digital Immigrant as I understand them.  Digital Native is a person who is fluent in functions of all things involving technology: computer functions and programs, email, social media, access to information and how to use such information(apps, articles, videos, games, images and etc.).   A Digital Immigrant is one that struggles with using technology  through various aspects of life, education, recreation, and work.  Prensky defines digital natives as native speakers of digital language.  Like learners of any language, Prensky asserts that, when learning a new language, some digital immigrants will learn better than others.  (I can  personally attest to this as being accurate!).

Prensky makes the assertion that," The biggest problem facing educators today is that digital immigrant educators who speak an outdated language, (that of a pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language". 


Once again, I can attest to the validity of this statement through personal experience.  It has only been during the last 2-3 years that I have been comfortable to introduce enrichment technology within the scope of my instructional day.  While I have had to use technology in the classroom to collect data for my school district benchmark testing, I have only recently began to use technology for day-to-day instruction.  More recent, I have opened the opportunity to my students to use technology for interest driven learning and student driven instruction.  

Prensky also talks about content in two forms: Legacy content and Future content. Legacy content, as I understand it  and described in the chapter, is teaching the main content areas of reading, writing, math, and connecting the past using 'traditional curriculum'.  Future content, is both digital and technological.  To digital natives, as asserted by Prensky, is highly interesting.  Prensky then goes on to make an telling statement:  Are digital immigrants able to teach in this (future content) world?  In other words, as a digital immigrant, I need to learn a whole new language, to not only stay current but to engage my students in a manner which many will be most comfortable learning? So, not only do I need to 'learn new stuff, I also need to 'learn new ways to teach old stuff'. Quite daunting, if I am to be completely honest!

In the piece, It's Complicated, Boyd states,"Teens make their own media or share content on line but this does not mean they inherently have the knowledge or perspective to critically examine what they consume".  He goes on to write that," talking about youth as digital natives implies that there is a world which these young people all share and a body of knowledge they have all mastered rather than seeing the  online world as unfamiliar and uncertain for all of us". 

In other words, just because the world is at their fingertips in twitch speed does not negate that fact that youth need the experience and guidance, even us digital immigrants, to help make sense of the world in which they live. Through a formal educational setting to informal interactions, digital immigrants can offer valuable guidance and instruction all while learning a new language. 

Finally, as a certified ELL, early childhood educator, I can relate to the newcomer learning an L2.  As a digital immigrant, I truly am learning an L2 and, like any newcomer (or anyone learning a new language), I am struggling a bit, as I learn the language of technology in a digital world.


https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/digital-technology