Immigrants/Natives OR Visitors/Residents

On twitter today there were many people discussing this issue and I find it quite interesting, so here is my take.

First go to English Raven’s Native verses immigrant verses resident and visitor and the great video that is embedded there. You can also learn more about David White at his blog TALL blog. The video is about 20 minutes long, but worth the watch I think.  Here are my highlights and thoughts-

For many years (since 2001, Marc Prensky) we have been comparing people as either being a digital immigrant or a digital native. As discussed in the video above this normally separated people by age; the ‘old’ people who are immigrants and have come into the digital world later in life don’t get it and the ‘young’ people who have grown up in the digital world and therefore ‘get it’.

As teachers we have heard this for years and have believed that our students and young educators are digital natives, while we ‘old’ people are immigrants.  I use ‘old’ in quotes because even though I don’t consider myself old, most people would categorize me as an immigrant since my biggest technology advancement in high school was the electronic typewriter. It always bugged me on some level because I work very hard to stay current in an ever changing technology world, but will I ever be considered a digital native? Probably not, unless I am grandfathered in.

That is why I like David’s idea of digital residents vs digital visitors.  Mainly because it really isn’t whether you were born before the Internet or after the Internet was developed.  It isn’t about the tool, but about what you do with the tool. I like this idea because it should be about what you do with the technology and how comfortable you are with it.  It also needs to depend on purpose, or your motivation. (Because as I’ve said many times before, it isn’t about the tools, but about what you do with them.)

So here is David White’s take:

Resident– those who view the web as a space to roam around in, even when they are offline their ‘presence’ is still online, on blogs, twitter, facebook etc… These people are collaborating, sharing, communicating and creating on the Internet. They view the web as a great virtual world that holds many possibilities.
Visitor– are those who are in and out, they are on the web to get a job done, then off.  When they leave they don’t leave a digital footprint behind. These people view the web as a means to an ends. Information gathering would be a job that they do often, and well. They may be creating something, but typically they will take it with them, not sharing or collaborating with others on it.

I like the fact that we can be both at any given time, depending on our purpose, or motivation.  Through my blog and other applications I have a presence on the web, and would classify myself as a resident probably 85 % of the time.  But there are times when I am simply a visitor who has a job to do and am on, then off the web.

I like this idea, because again it doesn’t focus on the technology, or a skill base, but on the motivation, or purpose of the interaction with the technology.  As an educator we can’t focus on the tools, but need to look at the purpose. Why am I using this technology? What is the learning objective? How will embedding this technology help my students learn the enduring understanding? What will motivate my students to learn?

So, if you are a resident, comment below and let me know what you think about this shift. (and if you are a visitor seeking information also consider commenting… why not it might be fun)