Day 1: Dangerous of Digital Native Label

Over the course of today, I spent a significant amount of time diving into the term "digital native." The terminology digital native is derived from the works of John Perry Barlow and Rushkoff. However, the term was made popular and coined by Marc Prensky is his work, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” Marc Prensky argues that digital natives are individuals born after 1980 who were raised in a society in which digital technology was an essential and assimilated aspect into daily life. Those who were not raised in a society centered on digital technology are considered digital immigrants. Although digital immigrants can become tech savvy, Marc Prensky would argue that they interact and think about digital technology in a different way than digital natives.


After discussing Marc Prensky in class, I would agree with his thought that society has evolved over the course of history to be more centered on digital technology. It is simply impossible to deny that our society thrives and depends on digital technology. However, I would agree with Boyd that there is danger in labeling and dividing individuals based on how they interact with technology based on the technology that was available to them at birth.  I think it is dangerous to place labels on individuals because technology is constantly evolving at such a rapid pace. The video below gives a quick glance as to how fast society is growing and changing. Therefore, the technology that is available to “digital natives” now will not always be at the forefront of society. There will always be new technology that individuals will either interact with from birth or need to learn and acquire as they grow up.


I would also agree with Boyd that there is a second danger of labeling individuals as “digital natives.” By labeling people as “digital natives” a false assumption is often created amongst society that scholars know how to both produce and consume digital information. However, this is simply not reality.  Although students are constantly producing information in the digital world via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc, I believe students do not have the ability to critically think about what they are consuming. In a society where information is constantly at students’ fingertips, teachers need to no longer teach content, but instead must change their instruction to teach students to analyze and critically think about what they are reading, watching, and viewing.  



There is no doubt that society is evolving at rapid speed, but will the educational system learn to adapt and change to meet the new needs of today’s students?

To check out more of my thoughts I have previously written on another blog visit: Evolving Mindsets In An Evolving Society

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 26, 2017 at 7:14 PM

    I also found myself agreeing with Boyd that we need to be careful in labeling students as "digital natives" since we do not know how digitally literate they are. When we then delve into what they are producing, we want to be aware of the quality of what they are producing and if they are actually understanding and making connections with other pieces of information they have come upon.

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  2. mks1963July 9, 2017 at 4:49 PM

    Younger students may not yet possess the critical thinking skills necessary to sift the content of the internet- that's certain. Another disturbing trend I see is the propensity for children and adults to stay in social media "echo chambers", seeking out and paying attention to content that echoes their own tastes, points of view, opinions. To me, that's very dangerous. Nobody grows in an echo chamber.

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