Monday, June 29, 2020
Boyd and Prensky
I was taken back at the metaphorical language used in labeling digital natives and digital immigrants. As an ESL teacher and advocate for immigrants, I felt digital natives held a connotation of superiority and digital immigrants had a negative connotation. I believe the labeling to be politically incorrect, derogatory, and harmful to immigrants that are today fighting against a divisive government that criminalizes and dehumanizes immigrants. In addition to the language, I new it was inaccurate because of the obvious digital inequalities related to accessibility and socioeconomic status. The same as learning a language, opportunity, exposure, and experience has everything to do with digital literacy and age has very minimal. Most of my 100 students are SLIFE (students with limited or interrupted formal education), many of whom’s first moments holding a computer is when they enter my school for the first time. Naturally, my English Language Development class has a daily focus on digital literacy. In addition, I do agree that students need to be taught about biases within media, and how to recognize and view these biases critically. For example, black, brown, and latino people have been misrepresented and criminalized in the media throughout history, and are continued to today. Teaching students about the “War on Drugs” and other instances where media paints a narrative of people for political gain can help raise critical awareness of students. I am excited to learn more ways to teach my students how to recognize biases within media and view these biases from a critical lens.
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Couldn't agree with you more, Nick! I think this class is going to be really helpful for us to better support our students at RHS.
ReplyDeleteNick,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did not state it in my blog post, I agree with your point. I did not care for the labels used to describe our youth. I understand the connection the authors were trying to make, but it can definitely be perceived as offensive. The dedication seen through this post to your students and your profession is admirable.
- Neale
Nick,
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the use of the metaphor in these labels. I can see where students could get offended by hearing this label. We need to work hard to support our ELL population in a positive framework. Great post!
This is a familiar critique of Prensky and a well founded one. Well said. Did Boyd resonate with you any more so?
ReplyDeleteSo much of the Boyd chapter resonated with me. It was interesting because I was evaluating Prensky from this sort of critical lens, really based on the lives of my students and what I have learned about language learning, and I felt the Boyd section on Digital Inequality and Beyond Digital Natives really confirmed these critiques. I found a lot of interesting information throughout the Chapter, but I especially liked how Boyd showed strengths of Wikipedia (all I've ever heard is don't use it) and sort of suggested teaching it as a way to practice viewing from a critical lens.
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