The New Digital Divide

There is a new digital divide developing within education.  The most pressing issue is no longer the digital haves vs. the digital have-nots.  The issue has become digital immigrants vs. digital natives.  Natives usually play an integral role in assisting immigrants with learning customs of a new culture.  This is not the case in the education world.  In education, the digital immigrants must train and teach the digital natives.  This dichotomy is creating a great deal of tension.

Students at every grade level want to be engaged with technology in the classroom, just as they are engaged with technology outside of the classroom.  I teach high school sciences in an inner city school in a large district.  When my Biology students started working on a mock Facebook project, my Earth Science students came to me and said, “Can we do a Facebook project, too?”  When my Earth Science students were making animated public service announcements for a symposium, my Biology students came to me saying, “Can we use Go!Animate, too?”  Surprisingly, students must be talking about what is going on in their classes.  And somehow, my lessons involving technology became a topic of teenage discussion.  How often is it that students talk about what they did in class today?  And how rare is it that a student even thinks to himself, “I want to do that activity”?  Students are engaged by technology – but not technology for drill and practice.  They want to use technology for authentic, creative activities.  They need practice reading, writing, analyzing, synthesizing and forming opinion.  Technology can marry the two together if digital immigrants will provide the opportunities.

I was amazed recently when my administrator commented that I am one of the only teachers at my school who consistently and successfully integrates technology with my lessons.  Am I the only one?  When students use technology at home and in some classes but then sit at a desk in a classroom with an overhead projector and chalkboard, they frequently disengage.  The student plops his head on the desk, thinking “What? I have to take notes and listen to a boring lecture?  I wish I was home on XBOX Live or Facebook.”  That’s when the student slips out the smart phone from his pocket and posts “This English class is hecka whack” to his Facebook page.  Before he realizes, the teacher is at his desk, open hand extended, asking for him to give up the phone.

Wouldn't it be better and more engaging for students if the teacher said, “use your phone to post to our class Wiki about what you've been reading during our silent reading period?  If you don’t have a phone with internet, I’ll bring you an iPad.”  This gives students a chance to enter into the “conversation of their culture¹” using the technology of their culture.

Yet many teachers quiver at the thought of bringing out cell phones in class or using easily stolen iPads.  There are plenty of strategies for avoiding theft and administrators are becoming friendlier when it comes to using students’ personal technology for a classroom task.  Still, many teachers are hesitant to bring technology into the classroom because they fear that they will no longer be the expert in the room.  Here is where we digital immigrants need to recognize that it is OK not to be the expert.

When we offer students a chance to enter into the “conversation of their culture¹” using the technology of their culture, they will be the experts.  The excitement of “I know more than my teacher” spills over into engagement, effort and empowerment.  When students realize that they know something the teacher doesn't  they will frequently stand up and take a leadership role assisting peers.  I've seen it happen in my class. 

Engaged students work hard.   Engaged students, who need practice reading, writing, analyzing, synthesizing and forming opinions, will work hard on a task when it involves using the technology they want to use for authentic, creative activities.  We digital immigrants need to create the authentic opportunities for students to engage in our content, and then stand back and learn from them.

¹Gardner, H. (2004). The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. New York: Basic Books. p. 263.