I find myself aligning much more with Spiegel's beliefs than with Prensky's. Yes, children now grow up surrounded by technology, but (exactly as Spiegel says) we cannot assume, as Prensky does, that they know how to use this technology safely, respectfully, and in a manner that advances their critical thinking and learning. Not all students have the same modeling at home about how to engage with technology. I believe that as educators we have the responsibility to teach about technology before we teach with technology.
This is how I view these steps:
We have to value what students know and introduce them to something new when we teach them about technology. Books themselves are a new version of tech that students may engage with. We start there and then we broaden, with safety and rules that not all children have at home. Spiegel believes that we cannot categorize people by when they were born, like Prensky does, but rather how they use technology. I agree that this terminology is much more accurate as everyone born in the same generation has deeply unique experiences. I hear Prensky saying that all youth have the same experience with technology, while Spiegel makes room for varied levels of experience and knowledge. I especially resonated with how Spiegel used the word navigate. Rather than dictating what students must do, we guide them and help them to navigate using technology in an educational manner. While Prensky emphasizes using mostly technology in classrooms, Spiegel acknowledges the value of using both traditional and new technology, such as books and computers. I believe that digital native is an out-dated term because it assumes a similar experience of an entire generation. While I agree that generations have some experiences in common, we cannot assume that a generation is a monolith, especially as we all have differences between our uses of technology that might correlate with where we grew up, our socio-economic class, the religion that we were raised in, and many other factors. I tend to disagree with terms that I feel to be generalizations of a very broad experience, and I feel that digital native tends to serve to generalize an entire generation, which makes it much more difficult for teachers to go in with a mindset of meeting a set of extremely varied needs.
I also feel compelled to include a link to the presentation that I use to teach my students basic internet safety during school when we are just starting to introduce it to them!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y3cEwem2SSSgsydsrRGr3eWQ5ycZ736zQBKEnk8YeWY/edit?usp=sharing
I love the pictures and how your view of the steps also include ensuring that we are using multi-modal forms of teaching-- both books and chromebooks. I also totally agree with the fact that we need to explicitly teach not only technology safety but how to use technology in general-- especially useful for students of families who don't have access to tech for any number of reasons. I also especially agree with the issue you raise about labeling a monolith-- I talk a lot about this in my response.
ReplyDeleteI like your point about teaching about technology before teaching with technology. I've found that a lot of my students are forming their own opinions about AI based on minimal information, and becoming very attached to it before being challenged to critically consider how it impacts their brains, society, and the natural world.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we cannot assume that the generation we are teaching is a monolith. Each student is growing up in such a unique setting with access to different things. I also really appreciated you sharing a resource that you use in your classroom!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your point about books being a form of technology too. It's a reminder that "tech" isn't synonymous with "digital," and that framing helps de-center the assumption that newer always means more relevant to students' lives. Also the socio-economic angle you raised is key too. The "digital native" as a monolith can mask real disparities in access, and that's exactly the kind of generalization that gets in the way of equitable teaching.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the visuals and inclusion of your presentation
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures that you included to show your thinking. I agree with you on your thoughts on Spiegel, not all children know how to use technology and not all children know how to use it equally. I believe it is up to us as educators, in partnership with families, to determine how best to inform the youth on technology.
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