Assignment 1: Digital Natives

I think the biggest take-aways from these readings are insights on human interactions. Reeves (2008). points out that despite the fact that we are able to identify fairly specific generational trends, that locking someone into a set of characteristics because of their generation is simply bad practice. Generational generalizations aside, I believe that any insight that you can gain to better understand a person is extremely valuable.

I foresee this information being utilized specifically in the strategic development of various initiatives. More specifically this information could be used in the development of a plan to generate buy-in among a staff. I think this information also allows you to empathize more with colleagues outside of your own generation, which in turn can guide your development of appropriate support systems.

On a separate note, I think much of the language centered around generations and technology unintentionally stimulate an us versus them mentality when addressing technology. In all reality whether you are a Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y, Net Gen, Mellenial, digital native, or digital immigrant, we are still talking about teachers being as efficacious as possible in raising student achievement. I think if you want to be truly effective as a leader, you must find as many ways as possible to bring people together, and divisive language can be extremely poisonous.

In terms of tying this in to NETS A Standard 5, I think these articles provide insight that can help you achieve these criteria. Ensuring equitable access to digital tools and resources is going to require buy-in from staff, and understanding general positionality of your staff based on their generation can help you do that. When addressing the promotion and modeling of safe, legal, ethical, and responsible interactions; having an understanding of what technological gaps different groups of people have will help guide what systems and applications need to be modeled most.