Boyd vs. Prensky
In “Are Today’s Youth Digital Natives?", we are provided with Boyd’s theory about digital natives. Boyd in a similar way to Prensky believes that teens are born with an innate technological wisdom. However, Boyd challenges Prensky's idea of digital natives even further. He poses that just because teens/children are born with the sense to navigate the internet and social media, it doesn’t necessarily “require active cultivation.” On page 197 Boyd states,
“Teens may develop an intuitive sense for how to navigate social interactions online through casual engagement and experience, but this does not translate to an understanding of why 198 literacy search queries return some content before others. Nor does experience with social media push young people to learn how to build their own systems, versus
simply using a social media platform.”
With this we can see Boyd’s deeper thinking beyond usage. He believes that there is more to just knowing how to navigate a device.
One example from tonight’s reading that stuck out to me were the “inaccurate” stigmas of Wikipedia. Boyd suggests that many students do not use the source because their teachers have felt it not to be a valid source. However, further learning can be made with the editing capabilities of Wikipedia. For example, “Wikipedia and most of those who had visited the site knew it was editable, virtually none knew about the discussion page or the history of edits. No one taught them to think of Wikipedia as an evolving document that reveals how people produce knowledge.” (Boyd. P.191) This example from Boyd provides an example that shows that navigation is not always a true measure of technological competency. Most students may be able to access the site, but they may not know how to edit the site or view the discussion pages. These options of viewing the editing of the site, can provide students with much more meaning and background of a concept or topic.
Boyd simply reminds us that we are all everlasting learners even our most technological savvy students, friends, and family. Is anyone truly a "Digital Native?"
The Myth of the Digital Native (further reading)
Steph, I really enjoyed reading your post. I also was surprised when I read about the stigmas of using Wikipedia and whether or not it is an "accurate" source. All throughout grade school, I was told to never cite this source for research purposes, though learning through the reading it is almost, if not always, just as credible as Encyclopedia Britannica. There is much more to the site that teachers have not taught students how to use or access. There was one example where a student even cited his paper using MSN Encarta even though he found all of his information from Wikipedia. That specific student missed the entire purpose of why his teachers asked for citations in the first place. With that, all he failed to learn that Wikipedia was deemed, "bad" without further explanation, other than edits can be made.
ReplyDeleteGood evening Steph and thank you for allowing me to read your blog post!
ReplyDeleteI really related to your blog post and what you chose to talk about, specifically the belief that just because someone knows how to navigate and click through technology does not make them a 'Digital Native.' I especially relate to this because I am a computer science teacher who definitely knows this to be true. time and time again, I see students glued to their phones, but when it comes time for them to demonstrate a digital literacy skill my students clam up and are confused. I think this relates back to Boyd's article, when she talked about media and online sources becoming almost too user friendly and easy to use. I think that this aspect of technology really hinders people and our students from actually becoming technologically literate or literate in media.
Thanks for sharing!
Steph, the information that Boyd provided in tonights reading in regards to Wikipedia also stuck with me. Although I knew that Wikipedia was editable, I was unaware that the site provided users with a discussion page. More often than not I found myself searching the web for an answer to a question and I was always hesitant to use Wikipedia due to misconceptions from previous teachers. In a way it allowed me to be more careful and cross check my information with other sources.
ReplyDeleteI also wrote about Boyd's view of Wikipedia in my own post. It would be interesting to develop a lesson on how to use Wikipedia more effectively so we can teach our students how to use it as a tool rather than advise to stay away from it. I found it interesting that students he had interviewed confessed that they used Wikipedia for projects as a starting point and then found a more credible source for the information that their teacher would accept.
ReplyDeleteNavigation versus competency is a great way to think about the issue of digital media literacy. Just because someone can quickly adapt to new technology does not mean they understand the underlying framework beneath the surface of their apps.
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