Are You an Immigrant or a Native in this Digital Land?

Our world is not the same as it was 20 years ago.  The way that students today communicate, think, and learn have all transformed as digital technology progressed.  As a result of this transformation, traditional education is no longer meeting the needs of these students.  As Prensky (2001) points out, “Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives” (p. 1).  As a future language arts teacher who is passionate about reading, these statistics fill me with mixed emotions.  On one hand I am disappointed that reading is becoming less and less a part of students’ lives, but on the other hand I can also understand how growing up in a digital world changes how students’ spend their time.  Prensky (2001) says, “…today‟s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors” (p. 1).  Their predecessors are the ones who didn’t grow up in the digital technological world.  These people are often the ones who are educating the digital natives. 

I classify myself as a digital immigrant.  My family did not have Internet access in our home until I was in high school; we had a computer long before that, but not Internet.  I purchased my first cell phone as a freshman at UGA when I was 18 years old.  I began learning about the digital world as a college undergrad ten years ago.  Much has changed even in ten years time.  As a homeschool teacher for two teenagers, I find it a struggle to keep them focused and motivated when most of the assignments come straight from the textbooks.  They are a prime example of how the traditional education system is not reaching this generation of students who think differently and learn differently.  We must find new methods to reach the students of today. 

Prensky (2001) states, “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work” (p. 2).  If we are to become effective educators, we must use new teaching methods that spark the attention of the digital natives and cause them to become well-educated students.  If this means that lessons will be turned into educational games, more technology will be used, and perhaps incorporating e-readers into the literature classes, I am in support of whatever it takes to reach my future students and further their education.   The question is…what exactly will it take to effectively educate the digital natives?   

After reading the Digital Literacies articles, I began to understand more about incorporating digital literacy in the classroom.  O’Brien and Scharber (2008) state, “A search on the term digital literacies yields a range of results including digital media, new technologies, new literacies, or New Literacy Studies (popularly abbreviated to NLS); or things that digitally literate people produce (blogs, wikis, podcasts); or activities that digitally literate people can engage in such as digital storytelling, social networking, and webpage creation” (p. 66).  This definition of digital literacies assists me in the interpretation of digital literacy and how to incorporate it into the classroom.  The more I find out about the world of the “Digital Natives”, the more I will be able to reach them in the classroom. 

As Chase and Laufenberg (2011) state, “This is to say, if digital literacy is simply reading and writing in a digital environment, there is no need for the new terminology. Writing with a pencil and writing with a pen are both writing” (p. 535).  Digital literacy means incorporating new technology as tools in the classroom that will enhance literacy education.   I particularly liked the example of how the Science Leadership Academy uses technology in creative ways to drive their “inquiry-based, project-based public magnet school”.   I can see how their approach could be easily incorporated into other schools if there is support from the school system. 

I understand from reading “Digital Literacies Go to School: Potholes and Possibilities” that there are many “potholes” that make teaching digital literacy in schools a struggle.  I still believe that if it is true that students today think differently, process information differently, and learn differently than generations of the past, why are we not changing the methods of teaching to reach these new students?  Our methods and expectations of teaching must progress as we progress.  This seems the only logical way to approach teaching today.

Chase, Z., & Laufenberg, D. (2011). Embracing the squishiness of digital    

          literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(7), 535-537. doi: 

          10.1598/JAAL.54.7.7

O'Brien, D., & Scharber, C. (2008). Digital literacies go to school: Potholes 

          and possibilities. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 66-68. 

          doi: 10.1598/JAAL.52.1.7

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 

          1-6.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part ii: Do they really 

          think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-9.