Our Digital Natives are Restless

I just found out that I'm an immigrant...a digital immigrant, that is. But if the truth be told, I am probably more of a digital illiterate than anything else. That's okay...I am in an TSL class now, so I will someday be speaking the language with the natives, though I will probably always have an accent that will give me away. Oh, the TSL stands for Technology as a Second Language.

This wouldn't be such a problem if I weren't facing a room full of digital natives every day that were restless. Prensky (2001) has coined these terms because our students today have grown up in a world full of technology; they have been playing video games since they were toddlers; most have never had to talk on a phone that was attached to a wall with a cord connecting them to it. The internet has always been there for them and they have had a student ID and password that allowed them to log-on to the internet at school since they were in first grade. They are digital natives and adapt to technology with an ease that I will never know. That leaves me feeling like an immigrant with no language skills trying to teach the native children how to read and write in their own language. Scary thought!

Because I am taking the initiative to learn what I can about the available technology and how to incorporate it into my classroom, my students are going to have an advantage over many others. This will take time and a lot of trial and error, but every little step we take will mean a gain in my expertise and a gain in their preparation for the world they are getting ready to face.

Before I could really begin, though, I needed to find out where my students were in regards to availability and usage of this technology. I chose three students at random to interview, asking about the time they spent utilizing the different formats, their comfort with internet research, and the availability in their own homes and school. These were seventh grade students, two in my own classes, and one in another school in my town. Please listen to the podcast to get a general idea of what these students have available, and how they use these tools.

Reference

Marc Prensky. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1074252411).