Digital Wisdom: A Necessary Faculty Competency?

IT HAS BEEN ALMOST A DECADE since Marc Prensky wrote about digital natives and digital immigrants (2001 a, 2001 b). In these initial writings, Prensky compared digital natives, that generation that grew up with technology, with digital immigrants, those who had not grown up with technology. A few years earlier, Tapscott (I 998) introduced the digital generation, and described how adolescents were different in a variety of traits. Howe and Strauss (2000) also wrote about Millennials and their need for a different type of educational experience. Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) edited an entire online textbook on educating the Net generation. Some (Bennett, Maton, & Kervin, 2007; Hoover, 2009; Margaryan & Littlejohn, 2008) have debated the validity of these descriptions of the Millennial, Net, and digital generations. They postulated that the evidence does not exist to support the claims that were being made: "We argue that rather than being empirically and theoretically informed, the debate can be likened to an academic form of a 'moral panic.' We propose a more measured and disinterested approach is now required to investigate 'digital native' and their implication for education" In an examination of the Millennial muddle from a student affairs perspective, Hoover (2009) in essence noted that many, like Howe and Strauss (2000), have created a substantive and lucrative business model to help people understand the Millennial student, worker, and citizen. I propose that now is the time to move beyond the debate. In the United States, there are statistics to demonstrate that both students and faculty fall across the spectrum of digital immigrants to digital natives. As educators, we need to transcend this divide and think about the notion of digital wisdom being suggested by Prensky (2009). Prensky stated, "Although many have found the terms to be useful, as we move further into the 21st century when all will have grown up in the era of digital technology, the distinction between digital natives and digital immigrants will becomes less relevant. Clearly, as we work to create and improve the future, we will need to imagine a new set of distinctions" Thus, the concept of digital wisdom. Prensky believes that "digital technology can make us not just smarter but truly wiser." Based on that assumption, digital wisdom is conceptualized as "wisdom that arises from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity and wisdom in the prudent use of the technology to enhance our capabilities." Digital wisdom does not just focus on one's ability to easily use or even creatively use technology. It is all about making wiser decisions because one uses technological enhancements. Prensky makes the case that people seeking wisdom will need the use of digital technologies to provide them with unprecedented access to data, information, and knowledge from across the globe. How one uses, filters, and eventually applies these resources will play an important role in the wisdom of their decisions and judgments. He believes that "technology alone will not replace intuition, judgment, problem-solving abilities, and a clear moral compass" (Prensky, 2009), but, he warns, "The digitally unenhanced person, however wise, will not be able to access the tools of wisdom that will be available to even the least wise digitally enhanced human." Prensky goes on to describe digitally enhanced person and applies the label homo sapiens digital. The notion of being digitally enhanced conjures up a lot of images in my mind. I have to admit that I was unsure about the direction in which Prensky was heading. But if you continue reading, you will find several key ideas that will resonate with educators. First, digital wisdom can be learned and therefore can be taught. Second, with more emphasis on digital literacy in our educational systems, educators have more opportunities to provide guidance to students about becoming digitally wise. …