Digital Native VS Digital Immigrant

   Based on Prensky's article I could not agree more with the concept of digital natives and digital immigrants. Growing up my family was fortunate enough to always have a computer and television in the home. We have grown up using technology and always looked to the web for answers rather than a textbook. Comparing my knowledge of using the web in comparison to my parents I believe that I am a digital native in comparison to my parents who would be classified as digital immigrants. I often hear my parents ask if someone received an email or have trouble navigating through the web. Just the other day I had showed my mother how to share contacts on the iphone and she was blown away. Mind you she has had her phone for two years now!

After reading Hertz's article I understand her dismay with the terms digital immigrants and digital native. As I mentioned above I was fortunate to always have a computer in my home where as many students are not. I believe that labeling people into two groups is not the best approach but I feel that Prensky was trying to explain that we as educators need to catch up to the digital age. Further segregating our students based on particular labels is not the correct way to go about the situation. As opposed to calling our students digital natives, digital immigrants, or digital citizens which all carry negative connotations because they are all binaries I feel that the real issue at hand is to educate ALL students on how to properly use technology. Whether a student uses technology everyday or has never used a computer we need to teach them the proper skills that will contribute to their lifelong success and ability to function in society.

I think as a  future classroom teacher I may have a slight advantage because I was born in the age of technology and understand what an important role technology plays in our everyday lives. In five to ten years the advancement of technology may even surpass my experience. With that being said, we as educators need to continue to educate ourselves when it comes to learning about and using technology. How can we as educators expect out students to learn about new information if we refuse to learn how to use and understand technology? I feel that in order to connect with our students we must incorporate tools that students use in their everyday lives.