Students and Technology

 Pensky 

believes that  young people are essentially hard wired differently because of the world they were born into. He feels that the very way that they think is different from the "digital immigrants". There is discussion about the speed, process and access of "digital native" versus "digital immigrants, what they deem important text/ graphics and how they understand technology. 

After listening to the Pensky I called my 12 year old into the room and told him that Fortnite was not real. He very pointedly told em that of course it was real. "what do you think I am doing? I am playing a game with real people in a real server".  

Pensky also talks about the accent that "digital immigrants" have. The way that they use the language, the technology itself and their comfort level of technology separates the natives from the immigrants. 

                                    
The most popular technology used by young people

Young people are producers of technology while older people are simply consumers....

Boyd

While Pensky states that young people have an innate understanding of technology, Boyd says that while they may know how to navigate their age appropriate platforms, they are not all knowing in the area of technology simply because of their age. There are many factors that come into ply including their own access to different types of technology and  their individual ability. 

"Many of today's teens are indeed deeply engaged with social media and are active participants in networked public, but this does not mean that they inherently have knowledge or skills to make the most of their online experience". 

I found it interesting that Boyd speaks about the political roots that the term "digital native" has. The creation of the us versus them attitude.  Media literacy predated the internet. It was started around 1960 in the US. The argument was that informed citizens needed to have the ability to critically evaluate messages to avoid being manipulated.- this part seems to be an ongoing need in our society. Unfortunately as Boyd states with targeted advertisement it may be hard to see other perspectives unless you know to look for it.  

I can see how social divisions would be produced and continued with this type of personalization. 

"most formal education settings do not prioritize digital competency, in part because of the assumption that teens naively understand anything connected to technology and in part because existing educational assessments  do not require this prioritization". 

Wikipedia

Again, after reading this section I called my son's in a 12 year old and an 18 year old, to see what their understanding of this platform was. My oldest said that using .org, .edu or .gov websites was best because anyone could edit Wikipedia. He said that while it is more difficult now, he had actually made edits to information when he was in middle school. I asked why .org websites were better and he said it was because they were fact checked. He had some general knowledge as to the WHY of using the different platforms. My younger son said just to Google what you need to know.......

I do not necessarily agree with young people being "digital natives" just because they are of a certain age. BUT I do believe that all young people were born into a different world and have a more natural interaction with technology. If they are guided and taught the skills, they will be able to easily navigate and produce in the digital world. (Of course, like learning anything else, their individual abilities and interest levels will play a role in the progress they make) Based on watching young students from many different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds navigate their new chromebooks that they were given due to the pandemic and distance learning I feel that these skills are more a part of the younger children's make up than it was ours. 

If we use language as an example, all children have the need to verbally communicate. Their knowledge of language will be different based on their individual abilities and the language that they are surrounded by. Some of the language is taught to them directly while other language is picked up from their surroundings or from need. We can think of technology in the same way. In 2021 most children have access to technology at a very young age. The degrees are different along with what they are taught about it. I think that we should make it a point to teach children more about the bigger picture of technology, rather than teaching them to use it this way because you have to we should be giving them the space to be creative, problem solve and use some trial and error to navigate the technological world. 

An interesting article about children and technology. 

https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/children-and-technology/