You name it, you own it
In my pervious post I mentioned that I was not in love with the terms, native and immigrant, when used in reference to our digital lives. Genevieve Bell's point in chapter 7 is precisely why this terminology makes me uncomfortable.
- "At a private event I attended, anthropologist Genevieve Bell invited everyone in the room to interrogate the underlying implications of these terms. She reminded the room that, throughout history, powerful immigrants have betrayed native populations while destroying their spiritual spaces and asserting power over them. Although this is not the story of all immigrants, this reminder raises serious questions about what is recognized in discussions of digital natives. Is the goal to celebrate youth savvy or to destroy their practices? Do people intend to recognize native knowledge as valuable or as something that should be restricted and controlled?"
Whether its Europe’s handling of the Americas or Europe’s dealings in Africa and India, native knowledge was only ever valuable if it could turn a profit. Thus using the terms, in me at least, invokes feelings of manipulation and deceit. That being said, this is not the only reason why the use of this terminology makes me uncomfortable. Exposure and Expertise are two very different things. The assumption that people born after the creation of smart phones are inherently better at using them is false. Yes, kids now have had more exposure to different forms of technology and social media, but exposure does not equate to mastery of that technology. That’s like saying people born in RI can inherently fish, swim, sail, dive and surf because we live by the ocean. This assumption can be very detrimental especially when thinking about its implications in a classroom. Computers won’t help kids learn how to read, nor will they teach kids to think critically about the media they are consuming and producing. Technology cannot teach kids to become contributing members of society. Digital media is a tool like the pen is a tool. And just like how we teach students to use pens, we must now teach them to use and create digital media to change their lives for the better.
Your closing argument is one that I actually also noted while I was reading, and I think that Boyd would agree with you that "digital media is a tool like the pen is a tool." Students (anyone, really) needs to be explicitly taught how to use that tool to their benefit and how, when they use that tool correctly, they can become contributing members of society, as you stated. We can't just bring technology into the classroom and expect to see the improved results that studies produced when instruction and technology are melded together. We need to teach them to become masters of navigating (consuming) and thinking so they can then write (produce) to affect change.
ReplyDeleteThat means more teachers need to be digital media literate, I wonder if theres a way to turn this class into a PD for our schools?
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