I think the first thing I will consider when teaching Digital Natives, is to realize that the internet isn't a novel item them. I'm in a unique position given my age within the millennial generation. I'm old enough to know a time without computers or cellphones, but young enough to still have the majority of my life be more in tune with being a Digital Native. I can distinctly recall being one of the last families in my area to get a home computer, around third or fourth grade. Up until that time being able to go to a computer lab in school had been exciting and a novel idea; once I had personal access to a computer, it became boring and normal. I was often frustrated as a student with teachers who either assumed I knew everything about computers or who saw it as only as something to use as reward for meeting expectations.
This being said, the data that the Pew Research Center collected proves to me what I already knew, teens and children are online. Google is to the digital native what an encyclopedia is/was to a digital immigrant. As a teacher I need to take into account that my students will likely come to me with some basic online skills, and so I must build on these skills as their teacher just as I would any other skills. I should not assume that my students know all, but I should not expect them to treat the internet as just "play time." Just as I'll teach my students to use a physical library as a tool, I'll teach them, and expect them, to use the internet as one too. It is simply a matter of assessing where my students are in their media literacy (along with keeping myself up-to-date) and then building their skills forward from there.
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