Us and them.
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Good and evil.
Black and white.
Pineapple on pizza as abomination or flavor paradise.
We humans LOVE categorization. The process helps us understand the world, helps create common language to simplify communication, and allows us to create order out of our chaotic society and unpredictable world. Unfortunately, our need to categorize often reaches the lowest common denominator - a false dichotomy.
One of the many examples of this false dichotomy is in Prensky's overly simplistic idea of "Digital natives" and "Digital immigrants." Unfortunately, the idea has been given significantly too much attention and credence in the world of education, and we all pay the price for it.
That price is paid by older teachers who become discouraged about using technology in the classroom or to enhance learning outside of the classroom, then by the students in those classes. It's so easy for teachers to give up on new skills and new methods of education ... maybe we try refraining from further discouragement and instead give them the skills and confidence to at least try new ideas.
At the other end of the spectrum, teachers might rush to incorporate technology for the sake of trying to meet students "Where they are" without giving any real thought into the "Why" of the tech versus the "What." It's so easy to assume that students will be more engaged and learn more effectively if we integrate tech, but so often, that tech misses the mark and has the opposite effect - making students think their teachers are clueless.
We also see this price being paid in the assumption that "Digital natives" inherently understand technology. This assumption precludes the teaching of core skills (such as word processing) and deeper digital citizenship abilities. Spiegel gives further examples and then does a great job explaining how this belief hurts our students.
Not only does the assumption of digital fluency in our students negatively impact teaching and learning, it's also simplistic, and frankly dumb. Do we assume that someone that was raised in an English-speaking culture is able to master the language? Of course not ... that assumption would be incorrect. Bigly!
All is not lost, of course. I love Spiegel's suggestion that we can leverage the communication skills taught in English classes as a tool to teach effective online communication. We're far from being able to effectively do that on a large scale, of course, but tech-skilled teachers that are willing to think outside the box could certainly integrate digital skills into lessons to serve multiple purposes. I'd go beyond that, though, as I think most subjects could incorporate digital skills into their curricula.
In conclusion, digital natives vs. digital immigrants can only be good or bad. It's bad. I said it. ;)
Definitely agree with the importance for English teachers to teach effective online communication. It's something I try to do personally with my students!
ReplyDeleteNate, I enjoyed hearing your voice in this reflection. I really enjoyed how you focused in on the dichotomies. One of the biggest frustrations of teaching is when things are assumed to be this or that. yes or no. right or wrong. true or false...
ReplyDeleteThis denies the opportunity for critical thinking.
100%!! Almost nothing in this world is a binary, and it's frustrating when people create false binaries to divide us or gloss over nuance.
DeleteNate, I also had thought on and wrote about the the faults of two category sorting. I like what you included about how this dichotomy discourages those on the "outside" from trying. I hadn't though about this, but now I remember that when I started my first teaching job after college, many of my colleagues referred to me as the tech whiz and came to me for help. I really had no additional knowledge than they did, and I certainly had no training. What actually distinguished us was that I was willing to click on random things until it worked and they were scared to do so.
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