Unpacking the term "digital native"

     In the eyes of Prensky (2001), today’s youth are “digital natives” meaning that they are a generation who possess intuitive knowledge regarding how to use technology due to the (assumed) omnipresence technology has had in their lives (as opposed to the lack of technology present in earlier generations’ lives). From this perspective, Prensky makes the claim that youth today process information differently than previous generations and therefore require teaching methods that are more aligned with their "new" style of learning. Certainly, the latter sentiment is not far off from what Sir Ken Robinson shares in his TED Talk, How to escape education's death valley (2013). Similar to Robinson, Prensky believes that today’s classrooms need to shift and be individualized based on students’ interests, strengths, and needs. However, once one reads the work of Boyd (2014), one realizes that Prensky’s ideas about youth as digital natives is based on a variety of assumptions regarding access and skill-set. 

    To begin, Boyd communicates that the presence of technology is not synonymous with digital literacy or technology savviness. In her own words, she states “many of today’s teens are indeed deeply engaged with social media and are active participants in networked publics, but this does not mean that they inherently have the knowledge or skills to make the most of their online experiences” (p. 176). Essentially then, Boyd argues that the presence of technology does not automatically ensure that today’s youth know how to best utilize that same technology, rather youth must be directly taught how to use technology responsibly and productively. Similarly, Boyd uses testimonials from teens as well as her observations regarding teen’s usage of technology to demonstrate that youth’s knowledge and ability to skillfully use technology varies greatly, which is in direct opposition to what Prensky reports. 

    In my own experience as a teacher I find that my observation of my students’ technology usage is in stark contrast to what Prensky claims to be true for our youth. Outside of navigating their lives on social media or viewing content on Youtube or Netflix, the majority of my students become quickly stuck when they are asked to independently navigate their devices (usually chromebooks) to access academic content on Google classroom or other academic websites. I believe my experiences coincide with Boyd’s assertions that “youth need opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge to engage with contemporary technology effectively and meaningfully. Becoming literate in a networked age requires hard work, regardless of age” (p. 177). 

    Connecting to Boyd’s latter point, I find that in my personal life I often witness how one’s knowledge of technology varies based on one’s usage habits. For example, my fiance and I are the same age and were brought up in similar households, however our skill level regarding technology varies greatly based on our technology usage. Case in point, my fiance is an avid online gamer and can navigate multiple game spaces with ease as well as build a tower from scratch, yet when it comes time for responding to and finding old emails or creating a budget with excel, he relies heavily on my knowledge of Google suite as this is my area of expertise. All this to say, I think the idea that today's youth are digital natives (as defined by Prensky) is a fallacy. Like Boyd, my personal and professional experiences lead me to believe that one’s media literacy and technology skills are largely dependent on one’s access to technology as well as their experiences of being taught how to utilize that technology to the best of their abilities.