There is some debate as to who coined the terms “digital native”, but I can recall where I myself first came across them. It was some ten years ago, in an article by educational technology thinker Marc Prensky, entitled “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” “Today’s students”, affirmed the author, “have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a ‘singularity’–an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called ‘singularity’ is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century.” Prensky went on: “Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.”
And for many commentators, the evidence which most convincingly demonstrates that “today’s students” have radically different outlooks, habits and skills from their elders, namely us digital immigrants, lies in the field of privacy. Over the years, there have been countless reports describing digital natives as being careless about keeping critical aspects of their lives private and not revealing everything about themselves to the public at large. Back in 2010, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg argued that “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people…That social norm is just something that has evolved over time”. I would venture a bet that Mr. Zuckerberg was understating his point and by “people” he was alluding to digital natives.
However, and thank goodness I would hasten to add, the reality of the situation is not as simple as some depict it as being, or so contends danah boyd, researcher at Microsoft Research, professor at New York University and fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for the Internet and Society (please note that Ms. boyd has officially changed her name to be spelled entirely in small letters). In a book whose title I have adapted for my post this week and which I would recommend to all educators and parents, It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, this specialist on the ways in which young people use social media in their daily lives shares the conclusions of the extensive research she has conducted on this topic during the period 2005-12. The essence of danah boyd’s reflections is straightforward: if we digital immigrants will “suspend [our] assumptions about youth,” we will see that “by and large, the kids are all right. But they want to be understood” (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014, kindle loc. 74).
boyd contends that much of what drives digital natives to embrace social media so enthusiastically originates in the “highly”, not to say overly “circumscribed” world in which schools and families insist teenagers live nowadays: “[teens’] relation to networked publics signals their interest in being part of public life. It does not mean that they’re trying to go virtual or that they’re using technology to escape reality…Although some teens are looking for the attention that comes with being public, most teens are simply looking to be in public and participate in culture, both to develop a sense of self and to feel as though they are part of society” (kindle loc. 3289 and 3339). Moreover, boyd continues, digital natives are not unconcerned with privacy, but are sensitive to what they will allow others to know about them: “rather than eschewing privacy when they encounter public spaces, many teens are looking for new ways to achieve privacy within networked publics” (kindle loc. 1270).
As a school which is deeply committed to the safety, well-being and growth of our 1350 students, the Lycée Français de New York is also deeply committed to teaching them how to take full advantage of what the internet has to offer, while thoughtfully avoiding its pitfalls. That double objective is the purpose of our digital citizenship curriculum and underpins all of the technology-related initiatives taking place at the school. Yet how helpful it is, as we shape the future of education in our century, to know that, no matter how revolutionary the times might be, digital natives and immigrants still have much in common!
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.