I have no neighbors that are children, and my child is only one
month old. I also have no nieces or nephews, so I chose to interview my first
cousin’s daughter. She is eight years old and going into the third grade at a
school in Marion County. She lives in a rural community with an average
household family income with her step-dad, mom, and younger brother. Here are
her responses. She seemed to be most interested in playing interactive video
games, and viewed working on the computer at school as work.
•
Ask your young person to choose a pseudonym for you to use in
the writing of your case.
“Niah” (lover of
gaming)
•
Do you have a computer /iPod/MPC playerWii/ ect....?
Yes, I have a computer at home, an
I-pod, and a Wii. I also have an i-pad.
•
What kinds of things do you use the computer for?
Today I got on the
computer for math games, and also at school I take tests on the computer like
reading tests every week.
•
What is your favorite thing to do on the computer?
Send my friends
pictures and letters that I write.
•
How did you learn to do that?
My mom taught me.
•
What are some other things you use the computer for?
I also play other
games for example Sugar, Sugar.
•
What is your favorite game? Why?
My favorite game is
Mario on the Wii, because it is fun and you can race against another player.
•
Do you know other people who do this?
My friends at school,
my brother and my dad like to play this game with me.
•
How do you use the computer at school?
I use the computer to
take my reading tests at school, and also I take benchmark tests online too.
•
How would you like to use the computer at school?
I would like to play
more interactive games.
•
Do you think teachers would let you use the computer to do those
things? Why? Why not?
No, my teacher told me
the computer time at school is mostly for schoolwork.
•
Anything else you would like to tell me?
I love to play the Wii
the most especially my new game All Star Party. I would like there to be a Wii
at school.
Quotes:
“ As society and the world
of work change, the skills that students need to live and thrive also change.
The competition will be fierce and can come form anywhere in this flat world.
In some ways, students today are ahead of their elders. Technology is second
nature to them and they accept and use it without question Schools lag behind.”
– Chris Jones.
…” They thrive on instant
gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to serious work.”-
Shakuntala Banaji
Thomas, Michael. Deconstructing Digital
Natives: Young People, Technology, and the New Literacies. New
York: Routledge, 2011.
“ As is evident when
watching a child learning to play a video game, there are few times when
children will sit down and be given step- by-step instructions by a tutor or
instruction booklet.” – Rebekah Willett
“One of the significant
changes in relation to learning with digital technologies is the scaffolding
that current technologies provide for learners.” – Rebekah Willett
Loran, your interview seems to have went very well and I found it very interesting to see what all your interviewee had to say. They seem to love interactive games, and to be honest, who doesn't? I still catch myself downloading interactive games on my iPad. Just as our text, Deconstructing Digital Natives, they talked of disguising work as play a lot. There are so many games on the internet that incorporate all different content areas, respectively, and it would be interesting to see how well a child like that would do in a classroom where interactive games were used as review or study material.
ReplyDeleteLoran,
ReplyDeleteIt seems sad to me that she's only 8 years old, and already sees computer use at school as "work," almost in a punitive way. I guess schools have kind of done that to kids, by making them take so many benchmarks and test on the computer. They think the only time they can have fun on one is at home. The challenge is finding ways to harness their skills and interests, which are so varied, but seem to center a lot around game play and pictures/videos, and find ways they can do those things at school. For an 8 year old to be taking and sending pictures online is pretty impressive. I know adults that can't figure out how to do that...and middle school kids, so obviously she's gained a lot of useful skills already.
Loran, your 8 year old interview sounds good. Your student sound as if she already is on her way to becoming an experienced Digital Native and at 8 years old. Based on her answers she has a very good learning environment in both home and school she plays interactive games and Mario with her brother, dad and her friends at school.
ReplyDelete