"The Danger of the Single Story" About Digital Immigrants and Natives

EDC MOOC Week 1 Reading "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives": Prensky warns ‘immigrant’ teachers that they face irrelevance unless they figure out how to adapt their methods and approaches to new generations of learners. When reading this paper, try to identify the strategies that Prensky uses to make his argument - how does the language he uses work to persuade the reader? Who are ‘we’ and who are ‘they’? What associations do you have with the idea of the ‘native’ and the ‘immigrant’, and how helpful are these in understanding teacher-student relationships?

My father is 78 years old. English is his second language. He is an immigrant and naturalized citizen of the United States, but he is not a digital immigrant.  In the late 80s, he bought his first personal computer and enrolled in a correspondence course to learn all he could about this new wave of technology that was quickly changing how he would do his job. He was a Certified Public Accountant, and everything in his office was being digitized overnight.  My father is not the type to bury his head in the sand. He is a life long learner, so he knew then he had to stay current and educate himself if his company was not going to provide him with the new skill set he needed. I always like to think of my dad as a digital pioneer because he was using a computer almost before I even saw the value in them. For a long time, my typewriter remained my friend.

Fast forward to the late 90s. By now my father is quite comfortable in cyberspace. He enjoys the anonymity of chat rooms to make his political statements and connect with fellow exiles from the motherland.  One day, as he still recounts, he happened to stumble upon a message board of exiles who were looking for family members now living in the United States. Through the magic that happens only in cyberspace, the first post he opened was from a man living in Burbank, California who identified the name of my father's aunt, and the exact street address of my dad's childhood home. This man was looking to find his family. Immediately, but cautiously, my father replied. Several messages later, my father and his 89 year old uncle, also a digital pioneer, had been digitally reunited after a 45 year absence. Several months later, the need for physical connection with family led us all to coordinate a family reunion in Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California establishing an instant bond with cousins we never knew existed. To this day, although we live on opposite sides of the country, we all maintain a digital relationship because of my father and his uncle's spirit of being life long learners. My father's uncle has since passed away. He was in his 90s. However, upon finding my dad, my uncle's age did not prevent him from emailing my dad everyday. (He did not call him to check if he had received his emails, by the way.) As a ninety year old man, my great uncle, also an immigrant to the U.S. and a World War II veteran with English also as his second language was far from being a digital immigrant. He was very much a life long learner and digital native, much like his nephew, my father.

Where I'm getting at with my family anecdotes about digital connections is that in the United States, when we are afraid to call things as they are, we make up all these colorful euphemisms, so we make people feel better about themselves.  I understand that. In the spirit of civility, we can't very well go around calling people morons all the time when they refuse to embrace life long learning or technology, especially if they are educational stakeholders. And, everyone of course is entitled to choose to live in an unconscious state of ignorance. I am really thrilled though with Prensky's "Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives" bold use of language to describe educators who don't embrace technology:

 "It's just dumb (and lazy) of educators – not to mention ineffective – to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Immigrant way is the only way to teach, and that the Digital Natives 'language' is not as capable as their own of encompassing any and every idea."  

Unfortunately, Prensky must resort to name calling to get educators to wake up, leave the old country behind and learn to speak the new language.

And, the problem with Prensky's digital immigrant vs digital native nomenclature is that now we have adopted it, and it's all a bogus excuse to hide the fact that we have leaders who should not be writing educational policies, or be anywhere near children, or even people for that matter. Not one of the master teachers I have known has ever rejected the opportunity to improve teaching and learning conditions by learning something new. Not one master teacher I've known has ever bah humbugged a new approach to help reach the student deemed unreachable. Not one master teacher I've known believes that there is a particular breed of children who are unteachable. Not one who thinks children need to be medicated so they can function in a classroom. Not a single one who has rejected integrating technology in their lessons if it meant students could create and discover his/her talent since every single one of us is talented at something.  I truly believe that.

Being a digital immigrant or a digital native is really just a state of mind of action versus inaction, consciousness versus unconsciousness about the changes happening in the world around us. It's now a euphemism for the truth that so many teachers prefer the antiquated teaching styles because they are afraid of change, afraid of using their imagination, or taking risks and turning control over to students. Teaching with the teacher's edition, standing behind the podium is as safe as it gets. And, the worksheet, well, that's the ultimate sedative to force kids into compliance. Acculturating involves change and risk, and perhaps maybe because both my father and great uncle were immigrants, they assimilated easily into cyberspace. They were both searching for connections and found refuge in the digital.  They were both finding ways for their voices to be heard as former victims of a government that silenced them.

Unfortunately too many K-12 teachers in the United States fear the politics and seek asylum remaining in a colorless analog world. They exist unconsciously in this beige analog world. If they wake up, it would require them to speak up against the abuse they endure everyday. If they spoke up, we would not have the crisis we have. I know all of this because I used to work with many of these  people and was forced to become a digital exile. I sought asylum in cyberspace to find like minded individuals who believe students deserve opportunities to create content, not just consume it via worksheets, lectures or textbooks.   

Technology is too terrifying for many educational stakeholders in the U.S. because it not only empowers teachers, it empowers students and their parents, and you know what happens when you become empowered: the status quo is threatened. The word empowerment in the public school system is thrown around all the time, but it's just doublespeak, to be honest. If you're lucky enough to work in a school that allows you to be creative, and these schools do exist, then consider yourself absolutely blessed! But let's not kid ourselves, we have a crisis in education because too many schools, (not all of course; I'm not generalizing) especially those in urban areas, operate in crisis mode, and lack leaders who are life long learners. If you work in a school where you are forced to design common assessments with other teachers who have no idea what the word assessment means, or if you're told you must read from a script, or else, because the district does not trust you are smart enough to design your own lessons, then chances are that you will quit before your fifth year of teaching, with good reason, or become a digital exile like me to get your teaching fix. I happen to be lucky enough to be able to quit about 4 years ago, by the way, because I realized that I could not fight the system for another 20 years, and the system was slowly killing me. There were way too many days in my life as a public school teacher that I felt demoralized and abused, never by the students, always by the adults, and no matter how much I tried to stay positive, when something is "rotten in Denmark", there are not enough days on those positive affirmation calendars to get you through the school year.

I do agree with Prensky that students have changed, but what I think remains the same is that human beings need to create and connect. Maybe our students' brains have physically changed. I'm not a neuroscientist to argue against this, but what I do know as common sense is that all human beings have a natural desire to learn, and need opportunities for expression and connection. So many of our schools prevent students from discovering that they are life long learners, the antiquated methods kill creativity and the ability to think for oneself. 

Also, even if older folks were socialized differently as Prensky states, every human being since the beginning of time searches and yearns for connection and the ability to express themselves. Some teachers struggle with technology because they are afraid to relinquish control over to students to allow  for this self-expression. Some believe a child or teen has nothing valuable to say, especially if they  are illiterate. The truth is that every child, every human being regardless of his /her literacy skills deserves the right to learn, create and to be respected as an individual. There are so many factors that are beyond a teacher's control that the thought of turning control over to students is terrifying. It doesn't have to be. When students are allowed to run the show, the content they are capable of creating is life changing, regardless of literacy, every student has a voice! We must create conditions in our schools to allow students to think for themselves and create. I miss the classroom so much it aches sometimes, but I refuse to have my creativity stunted or be an accomplice in stunting the growth of my students by being forced to follow policies that go against my grain.  Like my father, and my great uncle, the immigrants and exiles, I will happily remain a digital exile in cyberspace until schools change in physical life, and no one calls anyone an immigrant or a native, and we're all just intelligent, creative human beings because deep down this is who we all are.        

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This is an example of life long learning, collaboration and the proof that even the driest of information can be presented in an engaging way. This is the data collected from a survey Angela Towndrow created after our first Twitter #edcmchat. It's funny and meant to entertain, but if you listen, Angela was able to present the data she gathered in the survey in a more engaging manner than if she had provided everyone with a link to a Google doc.

Prensky says:

"A frequent objection I hear from Digital Immigrant educators is 'this approach is great 

for facts, but it wouldn't work for my subject.' Nonsense. This is just rationalization 

and lack of imagination." 

 #edcmchat Survey by angelatowndrow on GoAnimate

                            Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Also, here's a video I have linked to before titled The Danger of the Single Story. I am including it again because it's important for us to remember when it comes to immigrants or natives, there is a danger in always telling a single story about the experiences of human beings.