A Hoosier in Florida

Marc Prenskey established that the Digital Natives were those in K-12 in 2001. As previously stated, that qualifies me sitting in a suburban Indianapolis classroom in elementary school in 2001 as a Digital Native. In reading through his work, I tried to reflect back upon my own time as a student and, apparently, an early Digital Native being taught by Digital Immigrants.

Circle City

As an aside, the issue I have with glossy and headline grabbing nomenclature like these terms is that they do not encompass everyone's experiences. I believe that chunking people up in this way can be a bit unfair to those that were the earliest adopters of technology. Think about it in this way -- for there to be a generation of Digital Natives, that means that Digital Immigrants had to create this technology for the new generation to grow up on. Casting those that are over an age bracket in this light can diminish the messaging. I believe there are many factors that can play into an "accent" with technology beyond only age, but it is something that is easier to visually represent.

I relate to Prensky's early points regarding educators that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with a lot of technology. I was lucky enough to be in a district that prided itself on being on the cutting edge of technology, especially as the first group of students into two newly constructed schools -- a junior high and high school. This highlighted the differences between more established teachers and those right out of college -- again, this not being something specifically on age. Some that were freshly out of college were of the traditional age in their early twenties, but others had entire careers and were beginning anew in education. We were one of the first schools in our state to receive smartboards. Although, one teacher was so outraged by the device, that she literally turned all of the desks around and made the former back of the class the new front as it still had a white board.

There's more than corn in Indiana

I remember the AV cart and the overhead projector with film rolls you could write on from my elementary (K-4) and intermediate (5-6) days. I remember going to the computer lab once a week to learn PowerPoint even though a majority of the students could utilize more functions and features than our instructor. I was so happy to enter the higher grades in a brand new school with mostly newer teachers. I do believe that the curriculum felt contemporary and innovative with each teacher appearing to try and leverage the technology at their disposal.

I then moved to Florida in high school. The teachers were more established and I felt very little innovation. I went from an AP World History class in suburban Indianapolis that utilized Kindles to read literary journals from renowned historians to an American Government class in Pinellas County where we couldn't bring our textbooks home because we had to share them with a buddy in class. The schools had chalkboards. I remember coming home to tell my parents that I didn't know if I had ever seen a classroom without at least one whiteboard and that all of the new Expo markers I had bought were useless.

Probably the picture I painted of a Florida classroom to my friends back home as a melodramatic teenager

Looking back on my experience now, to be honest, I don't know what the root cause of this disproportionate learning was. The socioeconomic standing of the two areas were similar, if not more wealthy in Florida. Was it a budgeting issue at the district level as the Florida school was a county district versus a town? Overcrowded classrooms were undoubtedly an issue for both districts, hence the opening of two new schools in my time in Indiana. The curriculum of the Florida classes were far behind my Indiana schools and my classmates of the former were much less tamed. In my younger and more vulnerable years, I attributed it all to one thing - the age of my teachers. My Indiana teachers tried new things and related to us and our interests. They weren't all young but they seemed youthful. My Florida teachers were more established, the books they used were sometimes older than me. They didn't connect.

Perhaps it was that in Indiana, they utilized technology and they weren't afraid to fail. I remember teachers saying things like "this is experimental" or "we are piloting" this or that. Of course, I didn't commit a lot of what we actually did to memory and I can't even remember specific examples that stood out to me as being extremely different. Not only did they use technology, but they changed the way they did things to accommodate the technology. Florida didn't try anything that I noticed.

Today, I consider myself comfortable with technology and even, at times, tech savvy. Is this because of my age or because of my education? Maybe both -- maybe neither.

I have never approached these differences as an educator. Do any of you have experience in working in different states or districts that approached technology differently? What are your opinions on technology in learning?