Digital natives and immigrants - lost in translation (part 2)

The earlier post unpacked (somewhat) the nature of immigrance and "fit" but there is another premise of digital immigrancy that his helpful to consider, that being "instinct and development". As a non-native speaker, the first step to any dialogue is to work it out in our native language and then translate it to the required language. It is the skill of translation that is both the saviour and the curse of the digital immigrant. Having those quick translation skills are helpful for anyone in a changing world. For example in the UK those who were children between the ages of 5 and 10 in the early 70s might be considered the most cross-fluent between Imperial and decimal measurements; any older and they had to unlearn, any younger and the imperial is “foreign”, those in the middle “use whichever side of the ruler comes to mind” and flip between the two without much thought. This attitude to change can be liberating and means that in many ways, that generation have embraced their translation heritage to move between the old and the new (age in 2007 of this group of translators approx 35–45). However, with this form of translation, the initial process of “work it out in your own language first” can be a problem. We think:
“I want students to demonstrate their knowledge on this topic”
“how would I usually do this? – write a 3,000 word essay”
“how shall I do it using the technology? – word process and submit online a 3,000 word essay”
(oh dear!)

Our thought processes graft on the technology to the activity – the “traditional plus technology” approach to curriculum design. So where is the problem? When conversing with the digital natives they don’t have a frame of reference for the traditional (ie the equivalent of not understanding that French nouns have genders or that German verbs go at the end) so the translation seems awkward.

“you want me to demonstrate what I know about a topic – let me build a webpage, make a video, or better still, if you want to know what I think – check out my blog”

Linguists aspire to (and develop skills in how to) think in their non-native language and it is this equivalent skill that we need to promote in the use of learning technology.