Digital Immigrants Unite!

Let me start with a borderline heretical confession:  I believe that the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" have done more harm than good in shaping the direction of teaching and learning in the 21st Century. 

The way I see it, calling students "digital natives" and any adult over the age of 35 "digital immigrants" all-too-often leaves teachers convinced that they have no real place in helping students to figure out how to grow as capable and competent learners. 

We've inadvertently handed over all ownership and discredited our expertise, y'all -- assuming that spending our formative years with notepads instead of iPads means we've got nothing to add to conversations with our students about how technology empowers learners.

And worse yet, we hang our students out to dry every time that we make blanket assumptions about their ability to grow without us simply because they don't need owner's manuals to figure out how to use the new gadgets flooding the marketplace every year. 

Sure, today's kids CAN play video games and surf YouTube videos and send text messages and check their Facebook profiles without any help.

And YES, they have Pinterest pages long before their parents figure out that Pinterest isn't some clever marketing campaign for newfangled online savings accounts. 

They ARE successfully liking and poking and friending their way through life without our help.

But is that REALLY something to celebrate?

Aren't those entertainment-fueled behaviors nothing more than concrete evidence of a troubling disconnect between what kids CAN do and ARE doing with technology?

That's a question that Brad Ovenell-Carter -- a bright mind and even better digital friend who works with high schoolers in Vancouver -- decided to ask his students.

Their responses were revealing.

He started the conversation by asking what his kids would do if they had two hours in a tech-loaded room and no assignments to tackle.   

While some of Brad's kids planned to spend their time making videos for the greater good or creating digital art, most figured that Instagramming it, editing themselves into Justin Beiber's videos or printing 3D images of Harry Styles to take home would be more fun.    

That's when Brad asked: 

Hey #tokafe11: @plugusin contends that there is a gap between what you CAN and ARE doing.  Agree? Disagree?

 

Two of his students gave responses that every 21st Century teacher should tape squarely in the middle of their not-so Interactive Whiteboards:

.@plugusin Maybe there is a gap, but perhaps only because we don't exactly know what is all possible. #tokafe11

— Sophia Gupta (@smilethissecond) January 15, 2013

And:

 

@plugusin I would try and change the world... but I'm not sure how yet #tokafe11

— Heather Corbett (@Ergoplex) January 15, 2013

 

Powerful stuff, huh?

The moral of the story is simple:  Today's students -- the same connected kids that we've always assumed became superstars as soon as we plugged them in -- really DO still need our help.

It's OUR job to help kids to realize how to leverage technology for something more than keeping themselves entertained. 

It's OUR job to show the Sophias in our classrooms what IS possible and to help the Heathers in our classrooms figure out how they CAN change the world with digital tools. 

It's NOT enough to stand aside after turning kids loose with new tools, simply HOPING that they'll  figure out how to squeeze the intellectual juice out of the gadgets we've given them. 

Want to change the lives of kids?

Then start building a bridge between what THEY know about technology and what YOU know about efficient and effective learning.

#immigrantsUNITE

_________________________

 Related Radical Reads:

One Tweet CAN Change the World

Doubting Bauerlein's Dumbest Generation

The Ever Optimistic Techno-Cheerleader

Making Good Technology Choices

Comments

[crazedmummy]

I grew up when the personal computer grew up. We are pals. The new kids are the interlopers. I know how a program works. I can make a computer do what I want, if I have to.
The interlopers are passive recipients. They have to get interested in learning how to do, rather than how to be done to. That's our job.

[Darcymullin]

Bill, I LOVE this post. It is such a great reminder for all of us. Too often I get caught up in the belief that my fifth graders can create magic using technology tools if I just give them the access. While I believe they can make magic, your post is a great reminder that I need to be there to support, teach and learn along with them. Digital natives? Maybe? Learning and problem solving natives? Not Yet.

[Danica]

I appreciate your comments. We have this ongoing argument in our school division regarding the role of technology. Too often it is worshipped as the solution to all learning issues, yet I see our students as being relatively unfamiliar with so many aspects. I have introduced blogging in my grade 12 English class. I am constantly surprised by the number of students who have not even heard the term, let alone participated or created. For most of our students, technology is a toy- we turn it into a tool by showing the way.

On another note, I just want to thank you for the work that you do and your willingness to share. You have created outstanding materials and we all benefit from your generosity.

[Hatcherelli]

Hi Bill,
This post is absolutely brilliant! You have summed up what I have been telling people for years. I can't stand the terms "digital native/immigrant". If you leave a teen alone with a computer for a few hours, they will play games and use social media. We, as teachers, have the power to show our kids how to use the Internet to collaborate, create, and learn.
Thanks for the post...can't wait to share it.

[Bill Ferriter]

Glad you dug it, Hatch!

So how do we get people to change their minds and to recognize that kids wont automatically know how to leverage new tools for learning without our help?

How should we push that conversation in our own little worlds?

Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Danica wrote:

On another note, I just want to thank you for the work that you do and
your willingness to share. You have created outstanding materials and we
all benefit from your generosity.

- - - - - - - - -

Thanks a ton for your kind words, Danica! Sometimes I wonder if people are really out there and listening! Id write anyway -- writing is reflection for me -- but knowing that my content is useful and that Im having an impact is just plain rewarding.

Let me know how I can help. Im #alwayswilling

Be well,
Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Darcy wrote:

Digital natives? Maybe? Learning and problem solving natives? Not Yet.

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I love this, Darcy. Really nice language that is helpful for reminding teachers just what our role is in helping students to move forward in todays world.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing,
Bill

[Hatcherelli]

Thanks for the quick reply, Bill. To answer your question, I think we need to have this conversation in our schools and in our districts. Yeah sure, kids can use the tools but they need to be shown how to use the tools to learn...and which tool is appropriate for what they want/need to learn. As educators, we have to be willing to learn alongside our kids and we need to model the process. Learning new things is uncomfortable...and many of us don't like the way that feels.
Gone are the days when the teacher had all the knowledge and would give this knowledge/information to the students. Now...kids have access to the same information that we do. Times have changed and so should we.
Want a laugh? I was making a point to a student, the other day, about appropriate use of Twitter. I showed my own Twiiter stream and demonstrated how I use Twitter to learn about things that I am interested in...edtech, teaching, sports, etc. When the student saw this, she said, "Wow, you're a nerd!"

[Bill Ferriter]

Hatch wrote:

I showed my own Twiiter stream and demonstrated how I use Twitter to
learn about things that I am interested in...edtech, teaching, sports,
etc. When the student saw this, she said, Wow, youre a nerd!

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thats a perfect example, Hatch, of why we need to do a better job turning kids on to personal interests and passions! I want EVERYONE to be a nerd about something. More importantly, I want them to be efficient and effective nerds who can access information that motivates and challenges them easily.

Thats instructional nirvana, I think.

Rock on,
Bill

[Seantm]

Thanks Bill for the insightful post. I am a new reader, I had heard some of what I now know were you comments in other places but only just actually arrived at your site recently by following the trail to your well stated "edu-celeb" post -which I'll also comment on later.

As for the native/immigrant terms, I think we in the education field are particularly prone towards labeling various, phenomena, experience, and events and then attributing a value to them "right, wrong, in/appropriate, accurate/inaccurate." Etc. Not a huge surprise really -after all we are teachers and inclined to fall back on Aristotelean schemes of classification. However, the attached value judgments seem to create wholesale embrace or rejection of these definitions and the result is that terms swiftly come "in" and "out" of vogue with undertones of political correctness. One possible causual factor in this is Educational trends are frequently driven by pundits upon whom every word hangs a constituency eager to coin any term that fits the dynamically shifting endeavour of attempting to (effectively) educate our young. In a largely character driven profession, we are indeed, a vocation consistently in search of re-definition...

I thank you for thinking deeper about what we say and do and being courageous enough to share your thoughts with the rest of us. Your honestly and acumen is refreshing. Will be staying tuned...

[Rrmurry]

The "native"/"immigrant" categorization was flawed from the start, with all due respect to Prensky for seeking a purposeful analogy. However, the moniker has been maintained for a decade now. When I first read it, I bristled at the thought of being an immigrant simply based on my birthdate.

So I wrote and spoke about my own categorization...I am a digital interpreter.

My idea never caught on, but now many years after the shift from computers as consumption machines to creation vehicles, our "natives" are still mostly clueless about what they have that could make an impact on their world.

So, as I follow Syria's war now, the Arab Spring and Occupy Movements of last year, the Mumbai Terrorism of a few years ago all on Twitter, I still await the great awakening of America's restless natives who will one day ask, "Is this all there is to this digital world?" They have no idea of the power they hold in the hip(ster) pockets...which might be a good thing. :)

[Shareski]

. My 14 year old daughter is typical of most kids in that she uses technology to entertain herself and talk to her friends. Not only am I a bad parent but I too have shared stories of students who figure stuff out on their own and do amazing, important stuff with the technology. We seek out these examples to show what's possible but statements like, "our kids are already connecting" drive me nuts. I do try however to add the huge caveat to those examples by saying not "if you can't beat 'me, join 'em" message but rather if we want more kids doing awesome things, they need our help. That distinction often gets lost and the digital native myth grows.

[Bill Ferriter]

Dean wrote:

We seek out these examples to show whats possible but statements like, our kids are already connecting drive me nuts.

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This is true times ten, Dean -- and just as its important NOT to sell the notion that all kids are already using digital tools to do remarkable things, its equally important to remember that some kids ARE able to figure this stuff out on their own.

But if I were to put a percentage on the number of kids doing meaningful work on their own, Id guess that it is in the low teens.

I love the tweet from Sophia in the post -- it highlights the gap between what kids WANT to do and KNOW HOW to do. We play the key role in building know-how.

Thanks for stopping by,
Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Rr wrote:

My idea never caught on, but now many years after the shift from
computers as consumption machines to creation vehicles, our natives
are still mostly clueless about what they have that could make an impact
on their world.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

And another shift Im having in my own mind throughout this conversation is that digital tools arent really about creating -- instead they enable kids to make contributions. Thats something that drives todays students.

Creating by itself is less motivating than we think. Creating with a purpose -- creating with a desire to change the world for the better -- is where its at.

The question, then, becomes why doesnt making contributions play a larger role in the work that our students are doing?

Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Sean wrote:

However, the attached value judgments seem to create wholesale embrace
or rejection of these definitions and the result is that terms swiftly
come in and out of vogue with undertones of political correctness.

- - - - - - - - -

I love this, Sean. I can see an entire post dedicated to the ins-and-outs of popular definitions over time. Kind of like the Evolution of Dance in 6 Minutes video, but the Evolution of Ed Policy in 10 Steps. Show a timeline that walks people through the popular policies that have been discarded/discredited along the way.

And thanks for your kind words on the Radical. I try, thats for sure -- and knowing that the content resonates with readers is always remarkably rewarding for me.

Rock on,
Bill