Friday, 13 March 2009
Week 8-Article 1
This is a very detailed article, however lengthy and in places very monotonous. It challenges the claims of the expertise that the youth of today has online. At the beginning of the article it says youths are ‘conscious’ that they are the first generation to grow up with the Internet. In contrast, I would suggest that many of these youths would not think about it. Due to growing up with it, they do not think of times past when it was not there, unless asked by older immigrants. The author herself would not know whether all youngsters are consciously aware, because she is an older immigrant herself. To ask youngsters if they are aware would be pointless, as it would make them consciously think about it so accurate results could never be gained (if that makes sense!) The author also suggests that Internet literacy could be different from other written literacy in books etc. She is correct, but in disagreement with her point, I think they could be the same; written literature will always be alike- a formation of symbols in a pattern that society recognises as words, regardless of how it is viewed.
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I think a lot of these articles are biased in terms of the authors being older, and therefore talking about digital natives/younger people without much experience, what do you think? x
ReplyDeleteI disagree -but then I would wouldn't I?
ReplyDeleteNo, really. Some of the writers on the issue do actually work with children and observe the way they use new media. Some also talk to these kids in very clever ways so that your concerns over biasing the results are pretty much answered.
Immigrants can be ethnographers of natives (indeed, that is the tradition), they just can't ever be natives. (And that's one of my problems with Prensky, because he argues that's really important, and I'm not convinced.)
I understand both of your points. I find this quite an interesting topic. Although writers may work with children they still will not have the mindset of a native so can never gain completely accurate results (then again can you in any reserach?)
ReplyDeleteIf I were to conduct a study on immigrants, I would never be able to gain a full understanding if I am not one myself. Surely studies about immigrants would be better conducted by immigrants and natives to write about natives, because you can draw from your own experience? Prahaps I am looking into the pyschology of it all a little too deeply!