Thing 3 Native or not?

After reading Betcher's article about the myth of the digital native, I immediately thought of how many times people think ESL students are more proficient in English than they really are because they are able to understand and respond appropriately during a conversation. Like the students in the article who use their digital knowledge to navigate socially, the ESL students use their newly acquired English to survive socially. I see a parallel in the lack of technological fluency for "digital natives" and the lack of academic language fluency for ESL students. Both groups need instruction to succeed. My ESL students need lots of support in technology and language. As for me, I will not think that all of the students that I see glued to a computer are so much more "techie" than I. My intimidation level has shrunk from 100 to 98.6 %. I can feel my computer speak synapses beginning to snap.

Switching to a new train of thought, I have to comment on Vicki Davis's "Spies Like Us". OH NO! Now Little Brother is watching me. Ever since I read Orwell's 1984 in 1977, I have been quietly trying to resist Big Brother's invasion into my private life. Do I even have a private life anymore if I'm a teacher? I vote YES I do, and I want to keep it that way. More than ever we as educators need to establish the rights teachers and students have in regard to privacy and teach our students to respect those rights. Maybe a paraphrase of an observation by Shakespeare's Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing applies to this situation: Doesn't the appetite alter? Students love the kind of technology in their youth that they may not be able to endure when they age . I am going to ponder this issue.