Digital Natives: Their New Culture

Chapter 4 yielded this nugget for me... "new digital Internet tools do enable new forms of creativity, communication, and participation, but not necessarily for all young people," (Banaji, pg 60)... in the ongoing effort by many activist groups and civic organizations to engage the youth of their country technology has become the "go to" method of reaching out. What many organizations do not take into consideration is that many of the so-called "digital natives" or "millennials" want authentic ways for engagement not just a web-based app.  It's true that these are the types of tools they will engage with, but not because it's trendy, but because it connects them in real time. Twitter wars are talked about the next day, but in real time they are relevant, authentic, and full of purpose... in that yesterday's news is well old... the daily news paper is old... and small town weekly's well they are real old. A connected generation wants to participate in the now not read about it days after, so if the goal is to connect today's youth to real issues then it is all about connecting them in real time with real issues. 

Chapter 5... They constantly use mobile phones for immediate communication with their peer group and family and connect with each other beyond time-space via Internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (Thomas, 2011, pg. 67).  Constant contact... I remember a time when I left the house for work at 5am and returned home sometimes as late as 9pm without so much as peep as to my whereabouts and further I had no inclining as to peeping my daily activities... I was working in the DC Metro area 10 and 12-hour days with a total commute time of nearly 4 hours, but times have changed and the ability to "check-in" has led to the need to do so. Like, I said above today's youth want to be involved in "real-time" and that means constantly checking to see if there is something worth following or getting involved in so they can stay current. Furthermore, I can remember current events meant clipping a newspaper article or writing down what was on the evening news, but today current events mean current... minutes or hours old... "We interrupt the current programming to bring you this breaking news..."   to   "can you believe this just posted????"  While I understand the need for balance, I also understand the need to be connected to your social circle... Nobody likes being the one that doesn't know what's going on in the world, Nobody! 
 
Chapter 6 led to what I have been saying all along...  "From our analysis, it is also evident that regardless of their technical fluency, students still require traditional skills for successful task completion." (2011, p. 95)... the concept I have been espousing along, while digital natives may have more access at an earlier age this in No way implies that are born with innate skills. I still have high school seniors that have never sent an email or created an email account until they do so in my class and I have to provide very detailed instruction or even provide them with a "pair share" learner to guide them through the process. Teaching students how to better use the tools they have is essential to growth and achievement.

This MEME is i suppose to have the "World's Most Interesting Man" holding an iPhone 6s as a way to show that even digital immigrants use technology too! Most of my students are shocked to know that I have a "Snapchat" and "Periscope" account, but Not Facebook (which keeps me from declining their persistent friend requests). I, Twitter, Snapchat, Insta-gram,  and even guide them through what some would believe is easy formatting set-ups for different types of documents, I even have them set their MS Word Docs to show the "readability" statistics so they can see the grade level of their writing, which they think is really cool, especially when they start achieving grade level statistics above 10th grade. I may not be a "digital native" or the "Most Interesting Man." but I'm learning to use technology just like the best of them.

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