Tech Divide or Tech Indifference?

For a while now, those of us in education have been blitzed with the need to make our kids better digital citizens...we need to take advantage of the tools that kids are already using on the read/write web. Facebook and MySpace, they tell us, are where kids spend the lion's share of their time when online. The fact that many school filters block them both is a discussion for another time. I have tried it, and I am not sure that I buy it and here's why:

1. Kids who can update facebook but cannot center text in a Word document should not be considered digital citizens
2. When teachers post (me) class notes on a class Wiki and 2 students have used it, they are not showing themelves to be digital citizens
3. When lessons and links from teachers (me) are posted for other teachers to use and they are not, the teacher is not a digital citizen
4. Finally, when a student insists that an ethernet port and a USB port are the same thing, they are not digital citizens

I can hear you now..."but we need to catch kids where they are" and "since they are using the technology let's show them how to use it better". And I argue that we are teaching them how to use it but that they refuse to, or lack the means, to use it. As far as using technology because the kids do...doesn't that amount to pandering to some extent?

Now it's your turn...