Communications of the ACM
The Myth of the Digital Native
Credit: Blackboard Blog
New York Institute of Technology Associate Professor Shiang-Kwei Wang is dismantling the myth of the digital native.
Wang's recent study "An Investigation of Middle School Science Teachers and Students Use of Technology Inside and Outside of Classrooms: Considering Whether Digital Natives are More Technology Savvy Than Their Teachers," published in the journal Educational Technology Research and Development, found that while students who have never known a world without the Internet are skilled in some aspects of technology, many don't know how to use it beyond gaming, texting, and the occasional research project. Teachers, on the other hand, are proficient in using technology primarily as a learning aid.
Bringing the two together is the key to improving the way technology is used in the classroom to help students learn how to analyze data, solve problems, or increase their creativity.
"There needs to be a way to bridge that gap," says Wang. "Teachers need to see the connection between their instructional content and how technology can help them meet their instructional needs."
That may mean integrating technology in a new way. Teachers, Wang says, might step away from the Smartboard and invite a student to lead a demonstration on how to use data from certain websites to build a spreadsheet in front of his or her classmates. Students can also lead discussions on what the data mean.
"It's not just looking up facts," Wang says. "It's how to use technology to solve the problems that a teacher gives you."
Wang's study investigated tech skills of 24 science teachers and 1,078 middle school students from 18 schools in two states. Her colleagues on the study include NYIT Associate Professor Hui-Yin Hsu, Utah Sate University's Daniel Coster and Max Longhurst, and Todd Campbell of the University of Connecticut.
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