Blog Post #2: "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" & "Do They Really Think Differently?"

I feel my relationship with technology is a pretty strong one, however I would not say I am a ‘Digital Native’. I know my way around my computer and IPhone but there are still some things I struggle with like making Excel pages or using Microsoft publisher, so in some ways I am also a ‘Digital Immigrant’.  Like many others without technology I would be lost. In today’s world you can look something up in seconds, can never get lost because we all have GPS’s and we can listen to our favorite songs all by using our phones. Also when it comes to research for writing papers we do not have to leave the comforts of our own homes to go the library, we simply just have to type our topic into Google and the information we need pops up. We are very lucky to have all this technology at our fingertips unlike the generations before us. Even with all this technology I sometimes prefer the ‘Digital Immigrants’ way of doing things. Like written in the Prensky article, digital immigrants print out articles that are written on a word document to edit instead of editing it in the document. I also like doing this when I have to edit a paper or when reading an article for class. I learn better when I have a hard copy in hand rather than reading it on the computer.  

I believe technology can help me in many ways as a youth worker. I feel this way because it will help grab the attention of the youth I will be working with. I remember when I was in school and my teachers would play School House Rock when we were learning about certain lessons. After watching the different episodes I could always remember the songs which had the learning message behind it. Those types of videos made learning fun for me and my classmates. Clearly with today’s youth School House Rock would not cut it but learning video games, like Prensky wrote about would definitely grab their attention. Not only is it about grabbing the youth’s attention but it would also show them that you want to connect with them in the way they are accustomed to doing things as ‘Digital Natives’.