The Autumn of the Digital Native?
A meme that I have found particularly irritating in recent years is the myth popularised by Marc Prensky that children who have grown up in the last decade or so - the Millenials - are somehow inherently more gifted and competent in the fluent use of technology, Digital Natives. And that the rest of us are Digital Immigrants - strangers in the strange land of the Internet and technology.
Setting aside the issue that many people I know, older than 35, were responsible for the creation of the Internet as used by these so-called Natives here in New Zealand. My experience with the current younger generation (courtesy of nephews and nieces) is that they happily bounce from game to game or web site to web site, but they have no understanding of how any of it works, nor any special gifts in their use of it.
The first myth is that the current generation can simultaneously text, watch TV, read and learn. The reality, as most people who talk on cellphones while driving admit now, is that you can really only do one complex task at a time. As the "Autumn of the Multitaskers" article in the Atlantic notes, multitasking makes you stupid, not more effective - and being young appears to have no effect, our brains just don't work that way.
And as for the skills in using tools like Google, and social networking tools for life? A JISC/British Library study finds evidence that information skills have remained essentially unchanged over the past few decades. If anything, 'Digital Natives' are characterised more by their inability to ensure information sources are sound, than by their ability to use information effectively.
As for social construction of knowledge and the use of technology? The field of Computer Supported Collaborative Work has been active since the Sixties, even if it took twenty years to get the catchy acronym. Sadly, despite the creation of cool videos and massive bandwidth, we still don't have systems that make genuine collaboration natural and effective.
I'm not alone in criticising the concept of the Digital Native. Diana Oblinger, President of Educause, seems to be moving her thinking in different ways:
Diana's keynote was on the themes of changing students and changing technologies. Interestingly I detected a slight shift away from the Prensky "Digital Native" rhetoric towards an acknowledgement that technology is changing culture and that the ways of using various technologies we are seeing have more to do with that cultural shift than any age-related characteristics. Older generations are thus distinguished by their decision not to participate in technology-enhanced culture in favour of a more familiar analogue one.
The Wikipedia article sums up the real problem: "the concept of the digital native preferences technological users as having a special status as it relates to technology because they use it, which glosses over the significant differences between technology users and technology creators." It also says nothing at all about whether your use adds any value to society, or to your own education and skills.
Really, all technology is doing is giving people more options. Part of growing up is realising that you have to prioritise your attention and choose to focus your energy, the Digital Native celebrates those who can't choose, can't focus, and consequently can't learn.