Digital Natives: Navigating Literate Worlds

Chapter 7: "Over time, the study of the age group between childhood and adulthood has been seen as a struggle over cultural positions and between different scientific fields, especially psychology and sociology"

This is a time when lines are blurred and stress levels are high. Finding one's true self, gauging their abilities, and how they will use them in the real world. In this stage some may realize that, even though they are born digital natives, they do not possess the skills in the digital world to pursue a career in it. There are always varying levels of skill, in this group they might be at the bottom, but the top in another.

Chapter 8: "When combined with broader studies of young people's use of technology, our review of students’ scholarly information-seeking behavior shows that despite near-ubiquitous use of the Internet for information seeking and communication, students are challenged by scholarly information seeking at university."

Though it is easy to just Google the answer, it is harder to search through scholarly articles. One of the struggles is that a specific search engine is required for these articles and it may not be as well developed as something like Google. The background knowledge needed to go through these articles also plays a key role in finding the information the student is seeking. It starts takes a lot more effort for students to find the information which is frustrating when they are so use to being able to find the answer instantly.

Chapter 9 : "Participation is in many ways considered to be a democratic issue, meaning that it is a human right to be able to express opinions and become actively involved in society."

This concept is the basis for our nation. So we believe it to be a human right in our society, but it may be viewed differently by other groups.That being said I do think that it a human right to have a persons opinions and views expressed and heard. This goes back to the chapter about the Japanese students using the internet for self-expression and voicing their thoughts. Just like any good relationship it is good for all points of views to be heard and explored. Having an open mind and good discussions are key for the government and general public relationship.

Right now there isn't a large focus on developing digital literacy. It is almost assumed that digital natives already have the skills needed in this area. So one does not simply digital media, like all other skills it is learned and not everyone has such an easy time learning this skill. For now it is not a large role in formal schooling, but hopefully it will have a presence in the future.

The Civic, Social and Multi Modal Lives of Digital Natives

Chapter 4: "Some producers have even been reduced to faking comments in their forums to stimulate debate from “real” young people, which, sadly, failed to materialize."

Getting young people to participate in online is something that is hard to get them to do of their own free will. The best way is o use a site that they are already using, such as reddit, and getting a popular poster to get it started. If it is already popularized it is more likely that the youth will participate. Faking comments is a typical thing to do now, especially for things like yelp and other review systems. This gives them a better score than they would normally have, and if they are the only reviews, and get people in the door.

Chapter 5: "They also participate in these American SNSs to disembed themselves from their Japanese uchi and have a chance to express themselves free from Japanese cultural norms."

This is an interesting concept, but I have seen the opposite happen. American youth participating in Japanese culture in various ways. Most of this intrigue seems to be related to their obsession of anime and manga. For the Japanese it seems to give a liberating feeling. The ability to express themselves the way they want.

Chapter 6: "Characterizing young learners as a homogeneous group through the use of terms such as “Digital Natives” is problematic for a number of reasons, but the main one is that through a broad generalization such terms gloss over the need to identify and recognize difference."

This quote goes with what I have been talking about throughout my posts and it is nice to see that the author agrees with my thinking. I knew I couldn't be the only one. Like taxonomy in biology, it is important to categorize things with precision.




This shows a bit of the learning curves associated with getting onto the internet for the first time. All of the ads and pop-ups can be overwhelming. Without any guidance someone ma not assume that these are a ploy to lure people in.

Digital Natives: Reflecting on the Myth

Foreword:

"The digital natives argument also overstates the differences between generations, and understates the diversity within them."

I thought this was an interesting quote because there are many digital immigrants that are just as good or better users of digital media as the natives. In fact, it is hard not to notice that the immigrants are often the ones teaching the higher levels of digital media to natives.

Chapter 1:

"Bennett, Maton, & Kervin (2008; see Chapter 11, this volume) have rightly described the mood of such passages as increasingly akin to a form of “moral panic,” in which the differences between young people have been eradicated and they all appear to have been born with the same potentially transformative powers: digital natives are problem-solvers; they have new expectations; they invent new processes; they don't only work for an organization, they think of work as play; they are enthusiastic and skillful."

This is a bit of a long quote, but does present a very good point. Not all digital natives are good with digital media and use it for all its potentially that we see. Just because we can see how this technology can revolutionize how a person solves problems and goes about thinking, doesn't mean they are going to.

Chapter 2:

"Digital wisdom is a twofold concept, referring both to wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity and to wisdom in the prudent use of technology to enhance our capabilities."

I found the concept of digital wisdom to be interesting that it was a twofold concept. The first part makes me think of a cyborg, where humans have adapted pieces of technology to increase the physical limitations of their body. The second part is the actual process behind thinking that that type of enhancement is a logically sound idea. I know that is referring to using digital technology as more of a learning tool and how to use that technology to the extent of its potential, but if we go a step further, the prior may not be too far-fetched.

Chapter 3:

"Technological changes consequent on the development of the Internet have been linked to cooperative and collaborative forms of learning for many years."

This quote is under the Collaborative Learning section of the chapter and it caught my eye because it seems like I use this type of collaboration everyday. If I am at work or just doing a homework assignment, collaborating through email, texting, or some other sort of messaging system I am usually somehow collaborating with someone else to finish what I started. This extends to even getting back on track when I am not sure what to do on a particular assignment. Now I can just send an email that someone will more than likely see in less than 30 minutes that I will receive a reply. No more arranging times to meet or waiting until you see the person again to get back on track. Technology has made it where a team of people can be working on the same project at the same time and everyone can see what the others are doing. We have come a long way in technology and how we get hings accomplished. With this technology we are able to get more tasks completed in a shorter amount of time. It is truly an enhancement for the workforce and learning community.

Has my thinking changed?

After the foreword and chapter one there is more to think about. I guess that I was just more optimistic with my first opinion, but now reality is starting to creep its way in. Instead of a complete change I will go with just a shift in my opinion. Digital natives might not all use technology to increase their learning abilities in the way I want them to, but the ones that do have an edge. It is not all about the natives though, the digital immigrants can also have the same edge by using this technology. In other words, the segregation of the two types of users is irrelevant and the one that uses the technology gains the edge.

Visual Metaphor:

A Digital Native is Born

A digital native is only defined as a person typically born after 1980. This is the only factor needed to categorize a person into that field. Though it does not describe the technological abilities of the native, they are still a native to the new world of technology. Immigrants can still survive and even surpass natives, but they might have to work harder to get to that point.

THIRST

Instead of picking an easy picture to determine how the metaphor and metonymy, I decided to pick the one picture that did not make sense to me. In a way I want to reason it out in a post and get the interpretations of others. The first thing that comes to mind is that this iceberg contains frozen water that has been there for billions of years. Maybe? Looking at this iceberg and seeing that it is by itself floating in the middle of the ocean, it probably hasn't been frozen for billions of years. The only ice that might even have stood a chance through all the climate change through the entirety of that time might be at the middle of the poles. When I see this statement I think of the water cycle and how the same water on this Earth just gets recycled through the process. Personally I think a different picture could represent this message better than the iceberg because it does scream recycling to me. I am going to just go with the iceberg standing for being around for a long period of time. 

Digital Media Effects on Conventional Reading and Writing Practices

"Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?"

Quote: '“We need to decide whether we wish to take writing seriously and if we value the importance of a properly chosen word,” Baron says.'

I find that this decision is made every time someone writes to someone else. This connects back to audience affecting how the person sending the message writes. This is what determines the seriousness of the writing and the importance of proper word choice.

" Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?"

Quote: "Nicholas Carr sounded a similar note in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in the current issue of the Atlantic magazine. Warning that the Web was changing the way he — and others — think, he suggested that the effects of Internet reading extended beyond the falling test scores of adolescence."

When I read these sentences I could only think of this being some sort of ignorance of how Google has affected thinking. It is my belief that Google does not take away, but relieves the mind of a task that is has not become necessary. Recall of mundane facts are no longer needed and more focus on critical thinking by using the information that is found on Google can help us become masters of multiple subjects. If anything, it gives everyone a broader understanding of all subjects.

The Stance Dance:

Overall I would put myself on the side of Web Evangelist rather than Traditionalist but, like most things, I prefer to be between the two, Digital media is definitely changing the way people read and write. It allows for people to find specific information quicker and writing has been taken down to almost exclusively grammatical errors with word processing. The downside of this is that the reading of books and when search for specific content there is a lot of other valuable information that is lost. Writing might be down to mostly grammatical errors, but now they are very prominent and becoming more accepted to occur as long as the main message is still received. This is seen in the Rich article when the young girl is reading her fan fiction; the content makes sense, but the grammar is not on par. I have noticed that it also has made the professional messages less professional because people are so use to communicating in this manner.

Texting and Multi-modal Texts

The important things I learned from the video are how the word lol has changed it's definition to be a symbol of empathy, how a new language has been born, and the differences between speaking and writing. But the most important thing I learned is that it is a feat for this new generation to create a new language.




I would encourage students to make funny or serious videos with different characters. One that would be cool is if they took and animal from an ecosystem and had that animal talk about what it's like in that environment. This could incorporate climate, food chain/web, ecosystem, invasive species, reproductive genetics, and tons more!