A Digital Native In Hiding

After reading "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" by Marc Prensky, it is obvious that I am a digital immigrant. I remember when computers were first coming out and we had to use MSDOS (I think that was the name of the program at the time). I would have thought that would make me a Digital Native, but it does not. If you didn't know the commands to enter you were out of luck. Thank goodness systems have come a long way since then. The term Digital Natives almost seems appropriate for this generation as each generation seems to have their own way of being referenced. This probably goes back to the Baby Boomers, but I do not recall the name for my generation. "And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain." I believe this to be true for anything we learn as we get older. We tend to be set in our ways and way of thinking. For us Digital Immigrants we learned from reading, writing, and studying from books. There was nothing wrong with that then and there is still nothing wrong with that now. Yes, there are more resources available to us digitally, but are they all true or just opinions of others? Sometimes a combination of methods is better. I am a definite immigrant because I need to print out a document to edit or sometimes just to read. Maybe because I didn't grow up digitally I have more problems, but honestly looking at a computer that long just gives me a headache. Being digitally inclined or a native is certainly a benefit to have with the large world competition. Without it one would be lost. Does a person really need to have everything at the tip of their fingers and receive information so quickly? Some Digital Natives say they get bored in school because it is too slow for them; however give them a cell phone, computer, or ipod and they are a happy cucumber. There needs to be a combination of the two ways of learning for everyone to get along in this new world and a lot of patience. Some of us are slower than others. My only complaint is that I heard at one time that script/cursive handwriting was going to be eliminated because today's learners can only read print since that is all that is available with this technology and because they lack poor writing skills. How does this make someone more of an individual? Do we really need to change everything to accomodate these Natives? Until recently, I used my computer for email, papers, and minimal research. Now I am doing a blog, website, and a wiki. I use my cell phone only when I need to and almost never IM. I also don't like to text. Texting is another thing that drives me crazy. As a result people do not know how to spell and everything is in text lingo. Why? Hopefully one day there will be a happy and constructive balance of these two worlds.