Digital Immigrants vs. Natives: Dispelling the Myths

The forward and first three chapters... WOW! Yet, I'm left feeling like someone  had been stealing my thoughts... how could that be possible I had not yet read this book and still so many words that seemed like thoughts and conversations I have already had. Maybe Honest Abe was right, "Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't that new at all." the first quote from the forward goes like this..."The problem here is not with the natives themselves, but rather with the rest of us, the "Digital Immigrants"who remain obstinately tied to older media, and who are failing to catch up with  the times."(Buckingham, pg xi) Though I don't feel like I am holding on to the old media I sure know a lot of people my age that are, and I should clarify by my age I mean people who still remember phones attached to the wall and black and white TV, and that's all I have to say about that.
My quote form Chapter 1 comes by way of the closing paragraph..."In addressing the digital literacy skills and the evolution of new forms of pedagogy, educators have to be wary of adopting conveniently dichotomized modes of thinking" (Thomas, pg 9) This quote contains an entire post in itself, but I'll offer this tidbit, which goes back to a theme I have been voicing for some time in that... sound educational practices and pedagogy is not changed on a whim and tools and strategies are just that tools and strategies, Not pedagogical practices. Understanding that trends or fads are, well, trends and fads, technology is a tool and like all tools it requires learning how to use it. Reading is a learned skill, teaching students how to read is the pedagogical practice of teaching students how to use various tools and strategies in order to become a reader. The key here is learn "how to" the same is true of technology and the "Digital Natives," they must learn how to use the tools just like the "Digital Immigrants."
In Chapter 2 the author wants to offer the intent of coining the phrase that was taken so literal that the intent was lost and even morphed into a beast that has grown to epic proportions. When reflecting on this reading, I thought about the monk that coined the terms BC and AD, which how now become the universal BCE and CE (for political correctness). While he wasn't searching for a metaphor to name a phenomenon, he was searching for a way to discern the old and the new as a break in time. Such is the case here, but with a different reaction... in that with the BC and AD no presumptive power was automatically given to the new ADers, they were still the same people they now living in a new era. So it goes, with the "Digital Natives," they are Not born with the innate skills required to use technology, but their exposure to new technology lends itself to learning it at a much earlier age... even the "Speak n Say" is more sophisticated today than 25 years ago when I bought my son his, which is far beyond mine... my mother reading a "Golden Rule" book that went like this... "The cow says, moooooo" and she made the sounds. The quote, "I'm shocked at how many supposedly well-educated, thinking people just "can't take a metaphor."" (Prensky, pg 15)
Chapter 3 caught me in the "Collaborative Learning" subtitled section in that I just read a article about what students think about collaborative learning... Student Led Discussions and Learning
Which is one side of the narrative, but also points back to the theme I explored in Chapter 1, just because it's trendy does mean that the classroom facilitator can sit back and push the proverbial "GO" button and students will engage in deep and meaningful conversations that lead to a greater DOK. No what it means it that facilitator must plan more carefully, outline learning goals, objectives more comprehensively, and then interact with the learning groups providing the support each group needs, which means some groups will need different strategies and tools, but all groups need the primary information and tools. The quote, "The traditional method of teaching suggested in this contrast with collaboration was the direct transfer of knowledge from the tutor or lecturer by a largely one-way transmission,"(Jones, pg 35) which when coupled with my constructivist approach leads me to... students learning how to think about what they are learning by questioning and collaborating with others learners.

Student led presentations with various tech tools available to support their presentation, note the pens and "Post-it" notes as well as the poster sheets taped to the table with student created visuals... a treu MultiModal Presentation??? Imagine that..

 Thomas, M. (2011). Deconstructing digital natives: Young people, technology, and the new literacies. New York: Routledge.