Recasting the Digital Native in the Academy: Community College Youths’ Digital Practices, Perceptions and Differences

Abstract

The proliferation of discourse and research focused on American youths’ digital culture has given rise to a series of assumptions about youths’ digital savvy as well as their learning deficits, often at the expense of looking critically at the convergences and divergences between youths’ everyday digital practices and their learning experiences, particularly within the context of community colleges. Anchored in her study of Frederick Community College youths’ digital culture, Dr. Trigger considers the implications for community college curricula and teaching reform through an interactive distillation of the overlaps and gaps between community college youths’ everyday digital practices, their confidence with digital practices, and their perceptions of the relevance of these practices in college and in their future.