from So Digital Natives Don’t Exist, by Tim Wilson,
at http://technosavvy.org/2008/07/20/so-digital-natives-dont-exist/#comment-46978
I was sitting in one of Ewan McIntosh’s sessions at BLC08 and couldn’t help noticing how much delight he took in disputing the digital native/digital immigrant distinction. The native/immigrant comparison may not be accurate (so Ewan says), but it sure is useful.
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I agree with the idea that digital native – digital immigrant is a false dichotomy. I suggest that those younger people referred to as digital natives (by some) are simply more familiar with technology. Familiarity may appear as some kind of native intuition or gift, but could also be explained by experience – more time immersed in using technology. It certainly does not automatically translate into being a critical thinker about how technology might be used in education. From my point of view, all educators need to become more familiar with technology – they need to develop into "natives" by participation. There is no substitute. Standing on the sidelines observing and commenting will not create true expertise. This is accomplished by doing. One of the comments mentioned the old "driving a car" example to show the difference between expert and novice – the good thing about that example is that it is a clear example of earning expertise by participating, by driving. Educators need to drive technology themselves to become experts, to look like "natives" and then to join that new expertise to their educational expertise to lead students in using technology for learning, communicating, creating, and sharing.

The Building Learning Communities conference (July 16 – 18) (BLC08) has been very good. Keynotes Ewan McIntosh and John Davitt were excellent – funny, informative, and challenging my thinking. I attended several quality breakout sessions; I took notes and thought about how I would share what I have learned when I get back to my school district. At a breakout session today, Ewan McIntosh challenged the attendees – he asked us all to write down, by the end of the conference on Friday, the next steps for our own learning as inspired by the conference.
Good one. I was already dealing with mild cognitive overload from attending NECC, which had more vendor displays and breakout sessions than any person could wish for, and BLC08 has only served to increase the buzz, not clarify it. I think Ewan’s suggestion to map my own learning may be a good way to begin to process the conferences. To keep it manageable, I’ll stick to four items in my list.
First big thing I need to learn: I am in a new school district after 16 years in a single district. That means that the most important thing I need to learn is what is happening in my new district (regarding teaching, learning, and technology). I then need to find out what obstacles teachers perceive are limiting their own use of technology.
Second: I have many ideas about what is meant by “21st Century Skills” and there are many resources on the web telling us what others think those skills are. I need to learn how to distill this down into a meaningful list, with the help of my school community, so we can decide what we can manage to take on from that list – what can we accomplish this year? Next year?
Third: I have no idea how to “infect” my fellow administrators with the sense of urgency I feel around this. I will continue to research and reach out to others for ideas on how to do this.
Fourth: I will find out more about: Digital Buffets, wikified research papers, the innovative blogger, bebo, two stars and a wish, cmap tools, and configuring my wordpress blog (it’s not quite where I want it yet).
Whew – what a list. It’s going to be a busy year.