Technology and Generalizations of the Generations
January 19, 2008There is an interesting discussion going on about the digital divide. In 2001, Marc Prensky published an article called “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” putting forth the idea that today’s students have a dramatically different way of learning and thinking about information that those not growing up in this age will not ever be able to completely understand. Those that grew up in the digital world can speak the language and can be described as Digital Natives and everybody else as Digital Immigrants.
Some like Jesse from the Digital Natives blog believe the native/immigrant terminology can be used to identify and to address the divide.
Henry Jenkins analyzes the metaphor to examine how it diminishes the role of parents in the guiding their children. He says that the terms further widen the gap between parents and children. Jenkins wisely suggests:
“Many young people are trying to confront unfamiliar problems on their own, without anyone around them who fully understands what they are dealing with or who can give them meaningful advice about the problems they are encountering. Young people don’t need grown-ups snooping over their shoulders but they do need adults to help watch their backs as they venture into realms which are often as unfamiliar to them as they are to their parents.”
While Siva Vaidhyanathan points to populations that have not had the opportunity or interest to be Digital Natives stating there are obvious class, ethnic and geographic biases. His teaching experience over the last 10 years has not convinced him that students have changed so dramatically as people claim to be the case. Siva says each year a few students have great skill some are uninterested and many can not afford the technology.
My take is you should know what populations you are serving and then address the digital divide concerns. I agree with Jenkins and Siva that you should not make decisions based on this idea of the Digital Natives. An effort does need to be made to reach out to those that have not had the opportunity to explore new and current technology. Exploration costs not only in equipment, but time. College students that hold jobs or have family responsibility do not have the leisure time to explore and experiment with emerging technology. This discussion offers a new prospective on the role of teaching information literacy. I think teachers have a responsibility to expose students to the vast mediums of learning.
In the fifties and sixties there use to be an advertisement for Westinghouse or GE – both technology companies. The ad went something like this: “Progress is our most important product”. Well look where all that progress has gotten us. We are destroying the planet and now need to rush to Green to prevent our collapse and potential demise.
One needs to look carefully at who the winners in the divide really will be. Ask yourself what the use of all this tech is doing for young people – the good and the bad. Think about all the problems this generation is having today. A shocking number of our youth have an inability to focus, show violent behavior or are not capable of being alone without music, tv, iPod, laptop, or video games. I’m not saying that these things are the cause because we just don’t know how much of it is technology tools or technology that produced the chemicals that they inject through foods, water and air.
I also think that teachers have a right to be head and should not permit the clicking of laptops during their classes. Students should be listening and learning and then researching.
When doing research that required me to look through newspapers from the 60’s and 70’s, I was surprised by how closely the articles mirrored the issues of today. There were many articles about conservation and growing organic vegetables. Why did we ever stop thinking about those issues?
Today teaching is so different. I see the challenge teachers are facing to integrate technology, but not so that it would distract from the lesson. There has to balance somewhere.