Digital Native, NetGen, Millennial, iGen and so on ...

In a post entitled the Myth of the digital native, Terry Freedman writes:
"Angela McFarlane gave a talk at the Naace 2009 Conference which was quite interesting. The full title of her talk was:

"5 year olds never could program the video -- challenging the myth of the digital native"."

The full post is worth a read.

This January 2010 post, "The problem with the native/immigrant dichotomy" adds to the debate.

A July 2008 post tackles the terminology too. Not ‘Natives’ & ‘Immigrants’ but ‘Visitors’ & ‘Residents’

A more recent post, January 2010, looks at the use of various "i" devices by toddlers and younger children.

A few strong cases for ditching the paper and letting books grow digital wings

Miguel Guhlin writes: First Grade Media Literacy

You can do a quick search to find out what Mark Prensky and Don Tapscott have to say on this topic.

My thoughts:

I wonder does this language actually create artificial barriers?
How are the implied generational divisions of critical relevance to schooling?

I know that my grandchildren ( 7 & 11) are all already quite used to "finding and doing things online". This would include:

• locating games sites, mostly arcade and dexterity practice only
• google search for anything
  
• locate and follow product auctions on ebay