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Digital Natives Pitfall

Author: Mark Page Posted: 2012-07-22

A major mis-conception being perpetrated throughout news media is that young children born into the digital era are naturally in tune with technology, and they are experts when it comes to anything technology related. It is true that you people have a knack for certain simple technologies be it a cell phone, Wii, or the Facebook interface. These technologies were designed to be easy and by default are built with minimal choices. Being a risk taker regardless of your age enable one to become an "expert". In addition, all interfaces have common threads building upon previous reiterations, this is what made Microsoft the biggest tech company to date. To summarize, risk taking people who often use technology are more able to adapt to new technologies regardless of age.

Most people are lazy, and they don't like to do anything new or different. If you are born into a time period where tech is not commonly used, you'll probably not take the time to relearn how to do tasks that you are already proficient at. On the other hand, younger people who are being taught, be it in school or by their peers, to use or do things using technology will be more comfortable with using tech. Even within the so called digital natives generations these same patterns of inability to grasp new technologies are present. Oftentimes, young adults who are comfortable with tech tools from a few years back are flustered at using new tools across multiple devise, or with newer cloud based concepts.

What I have found teaching students of every grade level from Kindergarten to Seniors is that they many have a superficial know-how, but they rarely are trained or have in depth knowledge of the main aspects of technology such as logic, user-interfaces, or basic researching skills. There ability usually falls in line with a basic user who can use common consumer tech tools, but not more specialized content creation tools. More complex tasks or skill sets dealing with academic endeavors such as research, proper communication, tools for the sciences, or digital citizenship are almost never present in the so called digital natives age group.

This is why it is critical that teachers spend the time to teach the basic skills that students will need in the workforce and in a higher education setting. Skills such as sound researching, online collaboration, online etiquette, and using computers for logic manipulation are just some of the skills that will need to be taught and re-enforced in order to ensure that students are prepared.