Blog #3
The digital world is a world furnished and landscaped with technology. Two groups of people make up this world-; Digital Citizens and Digital Immigrants.
The digital world is a world furnished and landscaped with technology. Two groups of people make up this world-; Digital Citizens and Digital Immigrants.
The citizens are those born into technology and never known anything without a keyboard. Our students are the predominant members. “Digital immigrant” a term coined by Prensky, (2001), identify the generation that was not brought up with technology but has to learn quickly how to live with technology. They are individuals born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it some extent later in life. They are the ones that had to wait for pictures to be “developed”. Strangely enough they are the educators of the citizens.
What an irony!!!. In the real world, citizens teach immigrants how to adopt into their new environment but, in this “digital world”, the immigrants are the ones who are responsible for helping the citizens to adopt into their own world.
The immigrants created the digital world and invented these new networked technologies.
These natives do not understand or align with their own cultures and values, yet, they look down upon the immigrants and think they know it all.
Watch video below and let’s reflect on this; ”Do we as educators(immigrants) let go our old ways and make room for the learning styles of our digital natives or improve on our old ways where we use reflections(mental contemplation) as a learning tool or adopt to these digital citizens who look for more interactive forms of learning ”Clicking”, where everything is already made”. Calculators, e.dictionary, e.books, e.everything, less critical thinking skills. Don’t think they can be creative like the immigrants who invented this technologies.
References
Georgieva, M. (2009) Be a Digital Citizen, Not a Digital Tourist.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. doi: 10.1108/10748120110424816
When I was researching for my first blog, I came across the video that you have in your blog. I loved it, it was so memorable, because I could see my children saying those things. I see both sides of topic every day at school. I consider myself somewhere in between a digital native and an immigrant. When I was in about 5th grade I got on the internet for the first time, and have since seen in skyrocket. Sometimes I feel like I am hanging in the balance. Even though I did practically grow up with computer technology, it is advancing so fast that half the time I don't know what my students are talking about. I think we, as educators, cannot serve our students adequately unless we strive to understand and be a part of the world they live in, the digital world.
ReplyDeleteI love the term digital naitive vs. digital immigrants. Research has shown that the internet, and the newest computers are evolving faster than we can train teachers how to use them. This is the real reality of it all. We all must be open to the technology and be willing to walk into the abyss without much instruction. Speaking of achievement gap, how do we close the gap between new technologies and educator training?
ReplyDeleteThe digital immigrant admires the communication offered by the modern tools of our society. The digital native, alternatively, understands e-mail (twitter or facebook) as a nearly instantaneous mode of communication. When it is not, is the digital native is irritated? The widespread availability of the Internet means that the digital native is used to instantly accessing all kinds of information resources.
ReplyDeleteQuestions I ponder……
Should we look past traditional conventional ways of communication and embrace the digital immigrants and their digital communication modes as they are? Or can we meet them somewhere in the middle?
I think there is a little bit a hype in the digital natives concept. I agree that many of the digital experiences todays youth have can somehow be brought into the educational process, if the teacher has the right skills and technologies available. However, the students primarily know how to entertain themselves with technology, and not so much create useful products.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are many teachers who refuse to embrace technology wholehartedly, it is impossible to completely shut it out. Schools are updating equipment constantly and when teacher are provided materials and proper training, fear subsides which is the driving force and causes avoidence to new things. Eventhough many students may know more about specific programs or particular pieces of hardware, they can benefit when old knowledge and experience are conbined with student curiosity and ingenuity.
ReplyDelete