A Person Known to me who most threatens the notion of digital native/Immigrant.

One of my male cousins whos 22 now would be the person who most threatens the notion of digital natives and Immigrants. It appears that my Grandma can function with technology a lot easier than he does and shes hardly capable of sending an email. He chooses not to get involved with video games , rarely uses the internet unless he must and still has a Nokia 3310 a phone which is barely remembered. According to Prensky's theory he should be more involved and capable in the digital world than mos of my older relatives, although this is far from the case. My Dad recently showed him how to create a sharing folder on MSN Messenger further confirming how he threatens Presnky's ideas.

The Youngest Digital Native I Know

The youngest digital native i know would have to be my younger cousin who is actually the daughter of the older digital native i just mentioned in the earlier post. She's only eleven years old and has a brand new touch screen phone which she can operate with ease. She sends picture messages and a wide range of different files often and has sometimes even shown the older relatives how to use theirs. She owns a Nintendo Wii and a Nintendo DS which she uses to link to her friends Nintendos to compete against eachother. It seems rare to find a time when she isnt online on MSN Messenger or Facebook which emphasizes how much she makes use of technology and new media .

The oldest digital native i know.

The oldest digital native i know would most probably be my aunt . Still in her mid 30's many would argue she was still born in the digital world . She often sends text messages, is up to date with technology and even has her own facebook account. She spends most of her time online on Ebay buying or selling items even claiming shed rather buy clothes online than in stores. As a digital native myself in comparison i think she uses technology a lot more than i do. I still prefer seeing clothes in a store before i buy them and often keep texting to a minimal. She even recently bought a digital picture frame which can be used with a usb to create a slide show displaying different images an even videos which is on her bedside table.

Should Education Stretch a person ?

I think in this case to be streched by education is the notion of which through learning new means of knowledge a person can have a more open and capable mindstate. It is often said that with distractions in society today such as television , music and video games we sacrafice much time which could be used to gain further education . Many would agrue that in many ways these types of media can be used as sources of education although I doubt anyone would claim they are educated to their desire.

In this context , stretched can be perceived as meaning pushed to limits beyond your current state , through education many would argue this can be achieved. I rather prefer the sponge metaphor, assuming a person is similar to a sponge soaking up and absorbing education or knowledge and wisdom. In both cases there is a sense of growth or development which i agree comes hand in hand with education. Whether its coursework , exams or note taking in lectures, new skills are gained in all cases .Prensky has often applied this to technology and believes it holds the key fundamental source of education in the future, even encouraging new methods of producing video games which educate students today.

Week 8/9, 5 Chosen Websites

1.
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf


2.
http://www.wisc.edu/depd/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives.htm


3.
http://www.cemp.ac.uk/communities/interactivemedia/interactivemedia/are-digital-immigrants-really-grasping-the-digital-concept


4.
http://www.dimsum.co.uk/features/confessions-of-a-digital-immigrant.html


5.
http://jsavage.org.uk/?p=34

Week 9 Digital Immigrants

Digital immigrants are those who are unnaturally acquainted with the digital world. In comparison particularly in the western culture the more recent generations were born into this digital world as the Internet, video games and up to date technology seems like a second nature to us.' Digital immigrants have had to adapt in order to understand and grasp the digital world.''Our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.'' (Mark Prensky) I was intrigued by the theorist Mark Prensky's frequent comparison of digital users with language and accents and thought this was a good way to describe a 'digital immigrant'. The idea of digital technology being understood and used but still unnatural explains the idea rather well.It is often questioned how digital immigrants can be effectively teaching our generation in this area of study as we are seen as the 'digital natives'. The actual concept of digital immigrants suggests that those who fall into this category function differently from us the 'digital natives'.The idea of them being foreign to the digital world can be explored in many examples. An interesting one found online was that a digital immigrant may do something like print an email, edit it on the page and then re enter the word document to edit it again afterwards instead of doing it all at once. Ive found on occasions that older relatives of mine have often opened up another internet explorer instead of just opening a new tab or even closing a window when they want to make a new search.

Week 8/9 Criticism Website Five

The site was dated back to March 2006, some would argue this is outdated although in this area of study i would consider this to remain valid. When reading over this site in more detail i decided that choosing this site may have been a mistake as its usefullness is highly restricted when its main purpose seems to be to spark debate and question '' are you a Digital Native or a Digital Immigrant ? '

Again the writer has almost adopted the same views as the theorist i had used in my criticism of website one. Stating that todays students think and process information in a different mannor and the most usefull name he/she has found for them is 'digital natives' i began to question the meaning behind this text. It offers no ideas, solutions or criticism and for a text produced five years after the main text on this subject (in website one) there is no development at all, instead an article re wording what has been already established on many occasions.