Digital Natives

When I took the digital natives quiz I was surprised at the result. I had thought that I was fairly competent and current with technology. When I took the quiz I realized that I only know a lot about a few things, and I am completely unaware of others. From talking with others who took the quiz this seemed fairly common.

I think that this result makes me a digital immigrant. Technology is something that I have to constantly learn and relearn. It progresses faster than I can process it and apply it. I can definitely understand better how my parents and grandparents feel when they encountered computers, cell phones, or text messaging for the first time. To them I may seem like a "digital native," but really my digital literacy learning is constantly emerging.

I also realize that our students are emergent technology and literacy learners in many ways. In my sixth grade class, some students are familiar with making powerpoints and videos, but they need help making webpages. On the other hand, some students do not even know what a Word document is. I think that this illustrates that all students need to be immersed in technology. It is not easy to categorize students because everyone is in the process of learning some new technological skill.