Virtual Natives

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When a virtual Native needs to learn about something, they're far more likely to seek out a video on the subject on YouTube than to look for a text‐based answer on Google. VNs also prefer images over pure voice – via quick video chats – and for socializing, use other forms of communication that generally do not depend on the written word, and especially not on the handwritten word. This poses profound questions about what literacy is and what kinds of communication will retain both relevance and meaning for this generation going forward.

When Annika's son Finn was in the fifth grade, the biggest event of the year was Science Camp. The entire class got to go live in cabins in the Santa Cruz Mountains for a week with their teachers and nature guides, who would take them through the forest and show them the joys of finding banana slugs and cracking wintergreen Lifesavers into sparks with your teeth after dark. Practically the whole school year had built up to this enormous adventure which was for many children their first real length of time away from their families.

To give kids a reminder of home, the school suggested that parents write their children a letter and mail it to the camp ahead of time, so that it would arrive on about the second day of the adventure, just when kids were most likely to start feeling homesick.

“What a good idea!” thought Annika, and she sat down and wrote what she thought was a funny, yet reassuring card for Finn. As she mailed it, she ...