Digital Natives?

I have always been a bit skeptical as to the notion of digital natives. The term itself suggests that today's children are born knowing how to use technology. This is certainly not the case. Just a few days ago, I asked my eleven year old brother to email something to me, and he did not know how. Sending an email should be easy for a digital native right? Children and students might be able to pick up on and learn how to use technology more quickly than many "older" adults because they have likely had more exposure to it, but that does not make them native to technology. They still need to be taught about digital citizenship, online safety, how to email, netiquette, how to use the G-Suite, etc. They are most definitely not born with this knowledge. 

I found the information from Professor Thomas C. Reeves to be really interesting. There is such a push to change the face of education and to use technology in instruction, but Reeves contradicts this idea. That is not to say we shouldn't be using technology in our classrooms, but there is a time and place for everything. I love how Reeves suggests we should not be tailoring our instruction to a particular generation, but rather we should "identify the needs of any given set of learners" and design a learning environment that would be most beneficial to them (Reeves, 2006. p.21). As educators, part of our job is determining how to best meet the needs of our learners, and this is going to look different in every classroom because no set of learners is the same.

References
Reeves, T.C. (2008, January 22-25). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Online discussion presentation to Instructional Technology Forum.