Auteurs als Marc Prensky onderscheiden digital natives en digital immigrants. Maar lang niet iedereen is gelukkig met dit onderscheid. In de eerste plaats werkt het onderscheid nogal generaliserend. Er zijn zat jongeren die weinig op hebben met ICT, terwijl er anderzijds veel volwassenen zijn die zeer intensief werken met web 2.0, die zich binnen online netwerken bewegen, enzovoorts. Op de tweede plaats is -zoals D’Arcy Norman schrijft– wellicht de wijze waarop we communiceren veranderd, maar niet de manier waarop we leren. Rob Wall spreekt daarom van The Myth of the Digital Native:
When I watch students working with computers, I don’t see any evidence of digital natives. Their ability to use a computer to create a product – graph, spreadsheet, movie, etc. – is no greater or less that adults. (…) A colleague of mine observed that students don’t really understand the technology any better than most adults, they are just less afraid of making mistakes. They may figure things out on a computer faster, but they are just as likely to be mistaken as an adult.(…).
If we project certain qualities and attributes onto our students, instead of learning what they really can do and what they really need to learn, we do them a great disservice by not providing the education (that is, formalized school learning) that they need. We also show great disrespect to them by attributing traits to them instead of coming to know them all as unique and valuable human beings.
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