Difference Between Being Digital Native and DigiSavvy

One wonders, and this from The Chronicle is an excellent overview of the belief that the rising generation of youth is so "in tune" with what it means to "be digital."

The title says it all: Confronting the Myth of the Digital Native.

The takeaway quote:

Siva Vaidhyanathan, chair of the media-studies department at the University of Virginia, describes Ms. Hargittai as a "pioneer of empirical Internet studies." It is "absolutely untrue" that young people understand how the Internet works when they enroll in college, he says. "That myth is in the direct interest of education-technology companies and Silicon Valley itself. If we all decide that young people have some sort of savantlike talent with digital technology, than we’re easily led to policies and buying decisions and pedagogical decisions that pander to Silicon Valley."

Just cause you're born with it, doesn't mean you really know it.  Kind of a digital nature versus nurture, wouldn't you say?

Having just conducted a mini-seminar for students here, I can confirm what Eszter Hargittai says in the story.

That a two-year-old can swipe and click on a tablet device is one thing; being DigiSavvy must be taught.