When considering the words “native” and “immigrant”, digital is not the word that comes to my mind. By reading an article by Marc Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, I was challenged to consider myself an immigrant.
The faculty at my workplace was asked to discuss the article in our teams that we meet weekly with. I’ll admit that I quickly forget many of the articles we are asked to discuss, but this one stuck with me. As an 8th year Spanish teacher I will shamefully admit that I am teaching almost the exact same way I was when I started, with the addition of new activities and games to supplement the units that are in place. Even after receiving a Smart Board, many of the lessons that I had on the overhead projector are almost identical to the lessons on the Smart Board. They are just in a more interactive format. So I have made some changes but not nearly enough to accommodate the many changes that the students have endured as times change.
As one of the younger teachers in my building, I don’t feel like I am able to completely catch up with technology. I find myself wondering where I got lost. The article refers to digital immigrants having an accent. Examples that are given include printing out emails, printing documents for editing, and calling to make sure someone received an email. I find myself being tempted to print emails, I always print to edit a document, and I constantly worry about whether someone has received an important email if they don’t respond. As librarians it is our job to not only keep up with the digital natives, but also help those that we work with lose their accents!
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