Week 2 Reflection

     This week's topics were very interesting to me, and the reading was intriguing. My fellow classmate's blogs offered some very unique perspectives that I felt shed light on their own experiences, and I was able to draw parallels with my own. The readings offered valuable insight into digital native's vs digital immigrants, and I walked away feeling that those authors shared some of my own opinions and some did not which is a good thing. Some of the key takeaways for me were just how much we as a society are dependent on the use of technology in our daily lives and how that has brought about a great benefit, but also can come with risk. Yes, we have grown more technologically advanced, but we have also lost communication and interpersonal skills. To many of us the benefits are apparent, but i think we should be careful in relation to our utter depends on it as well. 

Crossing The Rubicon

We have crossed the Rubicon so to speak in the field of education, more importantly with who we are teaching. With the advent of the internet, digital content available to anyone anywhere in the world gives students the ability or disability depending on how you look at it, the capacity to send and receive information as fast as a click of the mouse. The sheer rapidness of the digital arena has helped hastily evolve the brain and thinking patterns of people who have known no other world than that which presently exists. (Prensky, 2008) refers to these young people as “Digital Natives” and the rest of us which knew of a world that existed without Wi-Fi “Digital Immigrants”. I would be considered a digital immigrant. I was a young kid when the internet and computers became a way of life in the mid 1990’s and I am grateful that I was able to grow up in a world where children still rode their bikes, dialed a home phone to speak with their friends and drank water out of the garden hose. I am also mindful of and can appreciate all the wonderful luxuries and comforts the digital age has brought us. I think it is important for us to be able to look at this and laugh, but on a more serious note with regards to instruction we must be willing and able to speak the new language our students are speaking. We must be able to evolve with and create new learning environments as well as content that is readily accessible and information and optionally rich for our learners. This can mean creating games that help assist instruction and retainment of pertinent information. There are several viable options to complete this, but one thing is clear to this author, change will come, us digital immigrants must be willing and able to change with it or learners will suffer from lack of evolution.  

References

Prensky, M. (2008). Digital natives, digital immigrants [PDF]. Retrieved May 27, 2023, from https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.  

Is Networking Individualism Worth it?

 We see it daily, drivers distracted, couples staring at their personal electronic devices while out to eat dinner, children playing on tablets and semi recluse strangers at airports. I myself am and have been guilty of this and we seem to all enjoy the latest Netflix top ten show on our phones while we impatiently wait for our soy lattes. (Raine and Wellman, 2012) seem to have a different point of view with regards to the tradeoff and the overall pessimism that has been perceived through countless centuries as the latest gadget becomes available to the general public such as the automobile or the printing press. They give a great example of how social networking was responsible for a huge outpouring of support for a married couple whom the wife was hospitalized after a serious fall and suffered head trauma. The money raised as well as attention that was brought about by or at least attributed to social networking is hard to argue against; however, I would simply ask the question, is the ability to send and receive information, communicate almost immediately as well as other 21st century conveniences such as Wi-Fi, social media, television worth what has happened to our culture and society? To this author, it seems as though there are a great many pros that have followed the internet age and mobile phone usage; however, it also seems that there is always a price to pay. Just how much, is yet to be determined, however, I would be interested to research depression rates, lack of soft skills, professionalism and shorter attention spans. I think one must balance and weigh the benefits versus risks in any situation including watching top ten Netflix shows while waiting for my soy latte. 

Rainie, L. & Wellman, B. (2013). Networked: The new social operating systemLinks to an external site.. Boston, MA: MIT Press.