Are you a digital native or digital immigrant?

I learned the terms ‘Digital Native’ and ‘Digital Immigrant’ in Prensky’sarticle (2001). Digital Native refers to the people who grow up with technology and surrounded by technology in their life since they were born. Whereas, Digital Immigrant just like the word ‘immigrant’, technology appeared later in their life and they need to get adjusted to it.

I was born in 1994. According to the definition of ‘Digital Native’ proposed by Palfrey and Casser in their book Born Digital, that is, people who were born after 1980s, I am definitely a digital native. However, I feel like I am more like a digital immigrant. I started to use computer when I was on third grade in my elementary school and had my own phone when I was 12. It was not a late age at 1990s, but compared to kids now, technology was a new thing to me at that time, and I almost missed the critical period to learn it. I had computer course and had learned some basic computer skills. To me at that age, computer is just a machine, and it has its own system, but I didn’t take it as a learning tool. The same feeling came to my mobile phone, it was just a machine I used to call my parents without any educational purposes. I didn’t realize technology like webs or applications could help me learn until I started my study in college. There were some assignments which I needed search information through the internet. From then, my computer became my learning partner, and I took some time to get used to it. Therefore, I don’t think I am not a digital native because these digital skills are not natural things to me, but require a learning process.  

I obtained my bachelor degree in China, but I had an one-semester exchange study experience in the U.S when I was a junior. I noticed that technology use in education is apparently more ubiquitous. When I just arrived at the U.S, it was very hard for me to learn how to use those online systems and resources. However, when I got more and more skilled at using technology as a tool to learn, I found technology really can increase our efficiency and is beneficial to students’ learning. When I got back to my home university in China after the exchange program ended, to be honest, I felt a little bit disappointed because instead of submitting my work online, I still had to print out my writing assignments and handed in the class, even though the university did have online system which most of teachers would not like to use. When I was reading Prensky’s article (2001), I realized the reason why most of my teachers were reluctant to bring more technology to classroom because they are at their middle age and are definitely digital immigrants.

The reason why I think I am a digital immigrant because I am not always comfortable with digital things all the time. For example, for a long time, I preferred printing out my boarding pass in the airport instead of checking in online. I still like to read hard copies of books instead of reading them on my laptop. These behaviors seem to prove my ‘accent’ is existing. As a teacher, I got frustrated because I don’t know how to use the technology, When I just got a job as a teacher in a really high-tech school where every kid has an iPad and there is a smart board in each classroom, to be honest, I was so nervous and overwhelmed. There were many applications on their iPads which my students are very familiar with how to use, but totally new to me. There are many functions of smart board which I have no idea how to use, I could not figure out how to switch different modes until I had practiced many times.

Although I am a young teacher and willing to keep pace with the development of technology, I clearly know it is not an easy thing to keep up with the latest technology. First, equipment cannot be updated very fast in schools because newest technology products are always expensive which not every school can afford. Second, I need time and chance to test the new technology and there are risks. I need to convince my self that using new technology can bring significant benefits to my students before I start to learn it. I also need to take parents’ thoughts into consideration.

Personally, although I identify my self as a digital immigrant, I don’t agree the statements about digital immigrant in Prensky’s article "DigitalNatives, Digital Immigrants Part 1” (2001), that is, “Digital Immigrants don’t believe that their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can’t. Of course not – they didn’t practice this skill constantly for all of their formative years. Digital Immigrants think that learning can’t (or shouldn’t) be fun.” (P.4) In my opinion, people become digital immigrant because of their age not their willingness of using technology. Take myself as an example, I didn’t use a lot of technology from a very young age like kids nowadays, but I have a positive attitude to technology use in classroom and very willing to use it. I don’t agree that some educators refer games as “sugar coating” (cited in Presky, 2001). I have witnessed that so many students do make progress in language learning and even learning coding through games.

Last but not least, like Sree shared in his TED talk, digital immigrant can also bring a rich perspective to teaching. No matter you are digital native or digital immigrant, please firmly believe in technology does make a big difference in education area in this digital age.