After reading the article, I agree with Spiegel's point of view. It seems like Prensky views younger generations, or "digital natives" to be much more tech savvy individuals who are able to multitask and need the educational system to cater to their technological skills in order to serve them best. Prensky believes that newer generations are more knowledgeable of the way technology functions. I do think that it is important to evolve with newer generations in education, but not all of our students will be harnessing the skills that we expect "digital natives" to have.
It is true that more kids today are growing up with access to technology, but it is not fully developing their skills as a digital citizen. Most kids are playing games, watching videos, or on different social media platforms when they are using their devices. Most of them are not on their devices typing essays, finding peer reviewed work, or using it to organize different kinds of information and data. I appreciated how Spiegel placed an emphasis on children having varying levels of skill when using technology depending on their own exposure.
I think that Prensky's perspective makes sense as his essay came out when technology was still fairly new and becoming something common in a majority of households. But it does not fully take into account how much guidance students still need when using technology. Students can navigate certain apps, but they still need explicit directions when learning to use certain tools or apps that are used in education and most likely in their future jobs.
A student's savviness with tech is also highly dependent on the devices they are exposed to, a student who has only been using a phone or a tablet will not have the same skills as a student who also has a computer or printer at home. All of this has to be learned. Someone who passively scrolls and consumes media will not have the same technological knowledge as someone who uses their devices to create. I think that the term "digital native" is too broad to define generations that have grown up surrounded by tech. Every student has such varying skills and they need to be taught how to use technology in the academic setting.
We live in a world where tech is constantly evolving and ways in which we can use it are always changing. It is important that we are making sure that all of our students are able to use technology in ways that can help them with their own learning, but we need to also teach them how to be responsible digital citizens.
This is an article from Edutopia (Poth, 2023) on Digital Citizenship skills that brings up important points!
https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-digital-citizenship-skills/
Karen,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you pointed out that while many more children today are grown up with technology; it is not neccesaritly being used in ways to improve outcomes for success naturally. In many ways, it is enabling them to do the. very opposite of what having the internet did for my generation, the ability to dig deeper. As mentioned in class, students will take the AI prompt rather than the actual google search results out of ease and accessibility, without questioning validity.
Hi Karen! Thank you for the comprehensive response to the article! I feel like I know it better having read your thoughts. I like how you focus on how the term "digital natives" leads to assumptions and young folk still need guidance when it comes to using technology. I especially like your reference to using a printer. I think of the struggle I and my colleagues all inevitably encounter in the teacher workroom .... I do wonder about your criticism of how young folk use technology: games, social media, etc.. I remember being young and feeling indignant, because I felt so strongly that I was deriving meaning and skill from the experience of playing games. I was solving puzzles, making fast decisions, and managing multiple categories of data to accomplish tasks and goals. Of course, my life has evolved beyond this stage. There may be space to value these things for young folks and guide them toward digital responsibility.
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