Digital Literacy, native or nurture?
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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We're going to look at the idea of the digital native.
What it is, what it means, how it's shaped the edtech conversation.
And we're going to look at some of the current responses, and how they might frame our attitude towards, and responsibility for, Digital Literacy.
WHAT IS THE DIGITAL NATIVE?
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They process information in a fundamentally different way
TO THE IMMIGRANTS, WHO HAD NO SUCH TECHNOLOGICAL UPBRINGING
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They prefer visual stimuli
AND INFORMATION PRESENTED IN SHORT SNAPPY, VISUAL BYTES.
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Their brains are wired diffferently as a result.
TECHNOLOGY USE HAS REWIRED THEIR BRAINS.
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Digital Native students lead
AND THEIR DIGITAL IMMIGRANT INSTRUCTORS FOLLOW. QUITE FAR BEHIND.
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"The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language...are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language"
Marc Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.
A recent Pearson study, of just under 10'000 US teachers, found that those educators who used social media most in their classroom were in the 35-44 bracket.
Second were the 45-54 bracket.
The digital natives came third.
The 2013 ECAR study. 3/4 of students didn't know what a MOOC was.
Student's valued their school/college website, email and their VLE most out of all their technology tools.
Overall,student technology use was conservative, limited, and usually focused on few tools.
And students expressed a desire to be shown how to use technology, by their tutors.
Udacity, a major MOOC provider, and educational disruptor, released a report last year.
Students's from economically disadvantaged backgrounds did less well in their moocs, than they did in face to face classes, in the same subjects, topics and courses.SIgnificantly worse.
Roughly 20% fewer passed the online course.
Students's lack of experience with technology, and lack of encounters with education over technology were identified as key causes.
"...even though students of the Net Generation evaluate their ICT levels as good, they are not necessarily able to transfer these abilities to learning"
Valtonen at al, 2011
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Valtonen et al point out that their student teachers, used social media passively and not actively for information sourcing, and used a small number and conservative type of technologies.
Their target population, digital native student teachers, they "will not necessarily be the ones to invent new ways of using technology in their work, but rather prefer to wait for other users' comments and ideas before adopting new technologies"
A recent Us study of digital native trainee teachers pointed out that students "lack the knowledge, skills, and experiences to integrate technology into classrooms to help them teach and to help their students learn"
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These educators are digital natives, use social media personally extensively, and yet have little experience of the use, for learning, of the technologies they use.
Fried, in 2008, found that students using laptops in class, where that use was unstructured, reported paying less attention, being more distracted, and understanding less in class than those without laptops.
They also scored less well on tests.
More so the more laptops were used.
Study after study tells us that digital natives personal use of technology is not translating into learning use.
That natives are using technology conservatively, passively, and ineffectively.
And these studies confirm that it's their educators, their experience of technology in their institutions, and their tutors use of technology that drives their digital literacy. Not age, discipline, or digital nativity.
THE MYTH OF THE DIGITAL NATIVE
INSISTED THAT EDUCATORS TRAILED IN THE WAKE OF STUDENTS
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TO DEMONSTRATE IT'S UTILITY
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TO SHOW THEM HOW TO HARNESS THE TOOLS
THAT THEY MAY BE TECHNICALLY COMPETENT WITH
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