After reading tonight’s chapter from “It’s Complicated” by Danah Boyd, multiple times admittedly trying to understand the varying points being made, I often find myself connecting with the positions of Boyd instead of Prensky. I think that I struggled a little with this reading because of the divergent positions of both authors and trying to find the overlaps and/or opposing views of each to fully understand.
Pensky claims “today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.” (pg. 179) But isn’t this a little true of all generations? As we grow as a society the way that people process the world is different based on experiences and their exposure to different media, like the propaganda posters mentioned influencing previous generations.
Yet just because a person is born in a certain generation doesn’t mean they PROCESS the information differently, just that the mode in which they are receiving or choosing to receive the information CAN be different. There are so many other factors influencing how individuals' brains work. Even as a “digital native” myself I still choose a physical copy of a book or article rather than a digital copy. The abundance of information delivery methods does allow more of a sliding scale of technology use for each person seen in “Scott Noon’s 4-Tier of Teacher Training in Technology” picture below from class. But technology use doesn’t go hand-in-hand with technology competency. Just because I am proficient in using Google Docs does not mean that I have to use this in my classroom.
I think this is why the term “native” can be problematic in conversations because of some individuals' preconceived notions that because someone is technically native of something means that they are competent in said area. I had a student last year who was a native Polish speaker, however since moving here has lost the majority of the language and would not be considered proficient. Which leads to the point that Boyd was making that “teens will not become critical contributors to this ecosystem simply because they were born in an age when these technologies were pervasive.” (pg. 177) My mother, a “digital immigrant”, is worlds more proficient in Google Suite applications than I am yet has never, and probably will never use social media.
There are so many factors outside of age that influence technology competency/usage such as social status, wealth, exposure, etc. The information given in class from the PEW Research Center 2022 highlights some of these really well; like the 19% difference between white and black teens using TikTok or the 19% difference in suburban and rural teens using facebook.
While I did find this chapter frustrating at times it was extremely thought provoking. I also enjoyed the trip down memory lane of my Myspace coding days (and super glad when I tried to look up this profile it is no longer there).
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