Digital Literacy, Digital Citizenship and Digital Natives

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Last week I went out to lunch with a prospective student and Matt Zowada. Here's how he described his life, "I go to work at McDonald's. I come home and play video games." That's it. He runs the sound board at his church once a month. He listens to heavy metal music.

How would you characterize the world we live in? Is it basically physical (brick and mortar, paper and pencil) or is is basically digital (video games, social media)? Do students agree with you? Where do most students "live" (spend the majority of their time)?  My observation is that the students coming in our door are increasingly likely to answer that life is basically digital. That's why cyberbullying can result in physical suicides and why digital image on social media is at least as important in 2017 as physical appearance, if not more so.

In 2001 Marc Prensky coined the term "digital native" to describe people like myself who grew up with technology. He later coined the term "digital immigrant" to describe most people born before 1980 or so. My children (2 and 4) are already expert manipulators of digital screens like iPads, iPhones and computers. As a group of primarily digital immigrant teachers, how do we stay relevant and plugged in (wirelessly, of course) to the needs of students like Connor?

First, you should know that digital technology has permanently changed education in the world outside NTBI's walls. For example, the nature of research, textbooks, literacy and even learning itself has been radically altered in a digital world. Here are a few quick examples:

• Research seems to indicate that students skim physical books in the same way that they skim their Twitter feeds. 
• Research also indicates that digital technology creates an incessant need to fill every minute of every day with new and interesting information. 
• Research shows that in some important ways humans are inferior to machines in processing the masses of information available in the world. The rise of artificial intelligence will put some humans out of a job.  
• Research indicates that students often use digital technologies to cheat. Because they use digital technology to do it, they feel less remorse and are more likely to cheat again.

K-12 schools nationwide are committed by the Common Core standards to develop digital literacy skills in students and to produce responsible digital citizens. Michigan even encourages school district leaders to take a "tech-readiness pledge" under the Digital Learning Day nationwide effort to promote the use of digital tools in schools.

What about us? Do we care about student's digital literacy skills? Do they matter? When we use the term "read" do we mean the same thing that students mean? When we say "research" do we mean the same thing that students do? What does it mean to be a Christian in an increasingly digital world? Are we okay with students living a digital double life in which their digital selves are stripped of all references to what they increasingly see as their "analog" faith? How do we engage with students where they "live?"