Marc Prensky isn't a stupid man. You don't get degrees from Yale and Harvard otherwise. Prensky coined the term "Digital Natives" to describe young people born into a world of technology but educated by "Digital Immigrants" who were born pre-internet. He goes on to describe the divide between natives and immigrants and paints a picture of tech savvy youngsters and out-of-touch adults. Sounds plausible to most, and despite the fact that the whole concept has been superseded, the language of "Digital Natives" has taken hold. The problems is, Prensky was wrong.
It's never been better illustrated than in the recent work I've been doing with some 15 and 16 year-old's. One girl summed up how non-native modern youth are perfectly when she was overheard to say "... how do you get to Google". Although I don't expect wonders from modern students, I did expect better than this. I would've just put it down to that student being an exception (maybe she was Amish), but the real shock came when I began to talk to my colleagues about it. Teacher or non-teacher alike, no-one was surprised to hear this. Many even traded stories with me of similar "non native" behaviour they'd observed. Of course you have your good examples too, some youngsters are highly capable, but so are some adults. It seems like these kids are as much at sea with technology as the generations that came before them. In fact, in my time working with technology in schools I think I've seen an obvious decline in technological savvy. The best example is that the wanton hacker is gone. A thing of the past. The student who kept the network administrator up at night wondering what system he might break into is something I haven't seen or heard of in a decade, minimum.
So what's happening? How can you be be a "native" in your environment but not understand how to climb a tree to get food, or know which animals are dangerous?
I think the blame lies with technology itself. It's too ubiquitous, and it's too easy to use. There's no challenge in using technology if you have it in your pocket all the time fully connected and just waiting there to alert you to when something happens. You're such a passive part of the exchange that you never have to think about it, so why would you learn anything about it? Moreover, if it's always highly reliable, you never have to work out a problem to get it going again. Unlike the generations who grew up with computers in the 70's and 80's, modern youth has gadgets that just work. Previous generations often had to troubleshoot their own problems. Ever had to scan a floppy disk to recover something? Ever had to set an IRQ for a sound-card so you can hear something in your favourite game? Or a more recent example - how much spam did you used to get compared to actual email?
Now, I don't mean this to be an "in my day I had to walk 10 miles through the snow with a broken leg to get home from school, then my Dad would horse-whip me for being late" story. It's good that technology is better, it's great that it's cheap and accessible, and I most definitely do not want all that spam back. But don't drink the "Digital Natives" Kool-Aid, it encourages laziness and does everyone a disservice. Students need guidance with technology. Don't take their capability with technology for granted, help them build it. Use your experience with frustrating half-baked ancient technology to create a native today!
