Really? A digital native?

What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky (per our discussion in class and/or per the article above?)  Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology?

As stated in my previous blog, I am a digital immigrant. Born in 1987, I believe that Prensky is incorrect in his statement that a digital native is born after 1980. Yet, I also do not agree with Boyd’s representation either that it is dangerous to assume that children and youth are automatically informed. The title of a digital native and a digital immigrant is not cut and dry. There are gray lines in these definitions and how the world views both groups.

Boyd discusses how everyone has something to offer when it comes to technology. Technology is ever changing and we are all constant learners. I am in agreement with her statement that we are all constant learners, yet children today are born with different brains than those of times before. Research states that children are not the same as the adults in the world today and are born knowing so much more than we once did. For example, my three-year-old nephew knows how to work a laptop, an iPad, and a smart phone. He was not taught these skills, yet somehow knows how these devices operate. His brain was designed to know how to work these technologies. He is aware of what each does, why he would use each, and what is appropriate to see and not. It fascinates me as I think to my own preschool years in 1990. At that time, there was no technology like that available. Preschool was a place to play and learn social skills. I remember we would go on field trips, and walks, and talk about our world. So why and how is this so different almost 30 years later?

There are too many questions left unanswered by this idea and too many unanswered questions by both Boyd and Prensky. Digital natives and digital immigrants are not clear cut ideas. They are based off of opinions and critiqued. It is all relative to who you are, what you believe, and the world in which you see.