"Digital Natives: Powerpoint Presentation."

Digital Natives Powerpoint #...

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After reading the text, Deconstructing Digital Natives, I have learned what it means to be a “digital native.” First and foremost, one must not generalize and clump together a whole generation of learners, specifically those born after the year 1980. I love the exert from the book that states to think of digital natives as a subset, not a generation. The book mentions, and it makes sense that although the younger generations have greater access to technology today this does not make them experts in the field. As educators it is our job to meet the needs of the students from where they are. It is our responsibility to teach our youth about digital literacy to adapt to the changing technological world. We must learn the skill sets that our students possess and their common interests and instruct them from that point. I have learned several common interests that digital natives hold. Some of them are: taking an active role rather than a passive one when it comes to interacting with technology, being socially heard through technology mediums, and digital natives crave instant gratification. With these aspects in mind, it is time to change the way the instruction in schools is being delivered to meet the changing needs of the students.

" Digital Natives: Navigating Literate Worlds "

Chapter 10

“ Technology has always been a part of literacy.” ….” (The) nature of that technology inevitable influences the literacy experience.”- Marsh and Singleton

I often have to stop and remind myself to be more open minded when thinking of the word technology. Like the book mentions, paper and pencil was once thought of as being technologically advanced. I feel that educators are getting too worked up about trying to incorporate technology into their teaching practices. One simply needs to try it out. Technology has always been apart of teaching practices just different kinds of technology.

Chapter 11

“Much of the debate over digital natives can be understood as an academic form of a “moral panic.”

This cracks me up. Moral panic? The use of technology by a user is no reason for any panic, this is just ridiculous. Yes, our society has changed and will continue to do so, but digital natives are not to blame. Several aspects of our lives in the 21^st century have changed society, as a whole’s, norms and values. Life goes on, what is acceptable today by the masses may not be 10 years from now.

Chapter 12

…” Some young people are not just consumers of information, but in some cases they are also creators of information.”

I love this quote, maybe one of my favorites from this book. I feel this quote represents my generation well. We are a generation of inventors, we like to manipulate, create, and mold our own realities.

Schooling and Technology

“ Ultimately it is well-founded transparent empirical research that promises to provide the best guidance for how education should occur rather than unsubstantiated or unclearly evidence claims.”- Bennett and Maton. I feel that educators yes should be responsible for developing student’s digital literacies, but I think that a one size fits all educational approach is wrong. Like chapter 10 mentions everyone’s pre- school experiences with technology, and even how they interact with it is different.

“Policy makers and educators need to be mindful of diversity within the student body and wary of generalizations about technology skills that have the potential to do significant harm if they cause the diversity to be overlooked.”- Bennett and Maton.

The needs of the students needs to be the number one priority.

We as educators need to be careful when asking our students to use technology in the classroom for assignments and assume that everyone knows how to use them properly. Not everyone has been exposed to all types of technologies needed to complete even the simplest assignments. 

" Digital Natives: Navigating Literate Worlds "

Chapter 7

“The different literate worlds young people move between online, and offline, relating to different ways of getting access to and interpreting information (“reading”) and producing content in different modalities (“writing”), informs us about how we need to reorient what we mean by “being literate” in our culture.” –Ola Erstad.

This hits home for me, and I tend to agree with this statement. The way that we interpret being literate has to change to fit what our needs are. No longer, being literate in traditional reading is going to be enough to be successful in today’s world. You have to adapt to change. Like my blog title says, there are many ways to be literate.

Chapter 8

….”Like to learn through running Internet searches”…..” effectively and efficiently search for information”… - Smith et al.

Although this quote is quite short I feel that it sums up what chapter 8 is trying to tell you as the reader. Our generation is so heavily reliant on Google it isn’t funny. I myself use Google multiple times a day to answer unknown questions. From this chapter, I’ve learned that undergrads would rather use simple search engines because they are comfortable with it, and it provides results quickly. I think that more time needs to be spent on educating people on scholarly search engine options.

Chapter 9

The image of technology often reflects a deterministic view, meaning that the generational differences are seen to be produced by technology, rather than being as a result of social, historical, and cultural factors.” – Buckingham and Willet

This quote summarizes the stereotypes that people may have about the use of technology and younger generations. You cannot clump together a large group of people and determine major differences based on one aspect. Life doesn’t work like that. I feel this chapter is trying to prove that point. Digital natives are different just like the other generations.

School for thought

Eisenberg (2008) defines informational literacy as “the set of skills and knowledge that allows us to find, evaluate, and use the information we need as well as to filter out the information we don’t need.”

Is it up to the educational system in our country to teach our students about the use of technology, creating digitally literate citizens? I think yes, in other countries throughout the world the educational system is making it a point to teach their students about being digitally literate. Even older students, such as college undergraduates in our country still rely on Google as the main search engine to locate scholarly information instead of deviating from the shallow water to try scholarly search engines. Even when I was in school, I felt that I wanted more help in learning how to locate information using scholarly sources. I remember my instructors just said to use them, but there was not a lot of instruction on the best way to do that.

The way educators are delivering information, and the kind of content being taught I feel needs to change as well. “ Schools would then still be important social institutions as a learning space for all young people growing up, but just one of several learning spaces that children and youth relate to in their daily lives.” –Ola Erstad

In order to fit the mold of how students are learning now, schools and colleges need to offer a more authentic real world approach to learning. In the real world, most of  today’s youth spends their day using some type of technology. Why not plug that into the way they are educated as well. Offering a more authentic learning environment will instill a love and desire for learning.

Research, Old School Style 

I feel that this image describes the changes that have taken place in the last 10 years or so. I feel that it is our job as educators to teach our students how to navigate the internet for more purposes that pure enjoyment. Teaching them how to correctly search for information using a scholarly search engine. 

" The Civic, Social and Multi Modal Lives of Digital Natives"

Chapter 4

“In other words, digital natives need a different kind of civic experience online than other generations.” –S. Banaji

In this chapter of the text, the writer discusses digital natives in relation to politics online. Because the younger generation seems to work and learn differently, they interact online differently as well. It was found that little interest overall is given towards politics and the youth online community. Some various websites have tried to incorporate web 2.0 tools to draw the younger crowd in. I can say from personal experience I use the Internet mostly based on social interaction and care little about politics while online. This quote seems to fit the way I feel.

Chapter 5

“It is a commonly held assumption that the diffusion of new communication technologies has led along with other developments to a downsizing of the world.”- T. Takahashi

I love this quote. I feel this to be quite true, that technology has made our world a smaller place. We are more closely connected to one another because we have a place to share common ground. In this chapter, the author discussed how connected Japanese youth are via their mobile phones. Although the U.S. isn’t as technologically advanced as Japan I feel this is true for the youth of our country as well.

Chapter 6

“ It is recognized increasingly that while the majority of students may process a core set of technology- based skills a very diverse range of skills and skill levels exist across the student population.” M. Leavy and R. Michael

I liked this chapter of the book the most out of the three assigned. This quote I think sums up what the chapter is trying to tell the reader, that not all digital natives are the same. Yes, we possess similar skill sets but we are still individual learners and cannot be lumped together.  I also like this chapter because a study was completed, so there was evidence to support the findings.

One Size Does Not Fit All

 I have chosen this picture to illustrate that although the world may think that all digital natives learn the same way. We are still individuals who hold different skill sets. In this way we are no different than digital immigrants. 

"Digital Natives: Reflecting on the Myth."

Forward Quote:

“The problem here is not with the natives themselves, but rather the rest of us, the “Digital Immigrants” who remain obstinately tied to older media, who are failing to catch up with the times.”- David Buckingham.

Chapter One:

 “Interpreted in this light the discourse of digital natives springs from the wide critique of an education system in which innovations are portrayed as a site of struggle between tendancies to centralize pedagogical and teacher control and decentralize learner autonomy by encouraging situated, authentic, and collaborative learning.” – Gee and Weller

Chapter Two:

“In the case of Digital Natives/ Digital Immigrants metaphor, the point is about why so many adults in developing countries felt, around the turn of the century ( and still feel today) “ at sea” when confronted by new digital technologies where as their children don’t. “ – Marc Prensky

Chapter Three:

A really big event has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity”- an event  which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back.”- Marc Prensky

Different Thinking:

After reading the forward and three chapter assigned about the digital natives and digital immigrants. I now have a new perspective on how the digital immigrants may feel. I am not one to be comfortable with the use of technology, but as  I read it seems that the digital immigrants have an even harder time. I found it interesting that there is really no set age on who belongs to which category as well. I also agree with the text in saying that technology use in kind of mundane although I had not considered it. It’s just so normal to me, that is it part of my everyday life without evening thinking about it.

technoevangelist: Second Nature 

I have chosen to take the technoevangelist side because I feel that I am competent about using technology and the benefits it can bring by using it. The photo represents technology being second nature like a dog being able to innately able to swim. 

"Digital Media Effects on Conventional Reading and Writing Practices"

Quotes

Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?

Writing, she says, is “a plastic art.  Writing always changes given the context. It molds itself to the changes.” – Andrea Abernethy Lunsford

After reading this quote from the first assigned reading, I have to say that I tend to agree with this argument. I feel that the way we write and communicate changes as time goes on. We tend to change the way we write and say things to match the times we live in. For example: the expression,  “totally cool dude”, would have been something that you would’ve heard from the mouth of a teenager living in the 1990’s. In today’s world the expression, “that’s sick” means the same thing. With this being said as oral language changes so does the written language. It adapts to fit with the times.

Literacy Debate: Online R U Really Reading?

“That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters.”- Rand J. Spiro

            I feel that this quote has some validity in the way the real world operates. Nothing is linear; life is so unpredictable that finding a pattern is often difficult. I think that Spiro may have a point in saying that online reading will better prepare today’s youth for what the real world, and it’s problems are actually like. I would be interested to learn more about the effects of online reading and how it changes people.

Stance

            I found this debate to be more controversial than I had originally thought that I would.  I am honestly not sure how I feel about it. From a person who loves reading books, I can see the value that reading can bring to the person. It engages the reader, if they are interested for a long period of time. Because of this I feel that avid readers probably have better attention spans. Also, from the article: Literacy Debate: Online R U Really Reading?, the author explains to the reader that the Conference Board found that 90% of all employers find reading comprehension as very important. This is no surprise I guess it just depends on what kind of reading comprehension one is referring to. The type of reading comprehension that is most measured in schools and standardized tests today comes from typical reading of paper books, or novels. So, it is important to know how to be literate in the traditional form. Third of all, the first assigned reading Baron mentions that writing is subjective to the reader it all depends on whom the writing is intended for. I feel that it is important to learn how to write in correct professional manner, those life skills are still required of all people who would like to advance in the world.

 Although, times are changing and maybe it is time to look more closely at what is considered “reading”. The second article mentions several times that standardized tests are going to include an electronic portion were a student’s digital literacy is assessed. I’m unsure of why the US isn’t taking part though. If this is the case and the way of the future is moving towards more technology based learning and reading I feel that the amount of time children spend in the online world will better prepare them for the new way of life. With this being said, I do not necessarily feel that digital media is destroying children. I think there is a place for both in our world. It all depends on how our society will operate in the future, more technology based or traditionally based. Our youth should be prepared for both.  I have an idea that we are moving more towards digital media and farther away from traditional reading.

A picture from the past 

 I think that reading books in the traditional sense is becoming a thing of the past. Like I had mentioned before, digital literacy is becoming more and more important today. I feel that one day the art of the reading a traditional book will be a thing of the past. That is why I chose an old photo to represent what our world is probably moving towards.