Comments on: Unpacking the concept of the ‘digital native’ http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native Picking out patterns in the chaos Tue, 22 May 2012 21:14:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Joan Vinall-Cox http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native#comment-5816 Joan Vinall-Cox Wed, 13 May 2009 12:41:43 +0000 http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native#comment-5816 I'm from the typewriter-library generation. My experience is that I'm more aware of the web as a communication tool than almost all of the university students I meet. My PhD thesis is a reflective examination of how I moved from technophobia to becoming a strident web-enthusiast, and I now believe that digital literacy is more significant than age. I’m from the typewriter-library generation. My experience is that I’m more aware of the web as a communication tool than almost all of the university students I meet. My PhD thesis is a reflective examination of how I moved from technophobia to becoming a strident web-enthusiast, and I now believe that digital literacy is more significant than age.

]]> By: Terence Eden http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native#comment-5815 Terence Eden Wed, 13 May 2009 12:35:03 +0000 http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native#comment-5815 Digital Native is a state of mind. It's using Google / Wikipedia as your primary choice for settling an argument. It's checking whether your friends are free by looking at Facebook. But it runs even deeper than that... It's needing to sort some data and knowing that you can use Excel. It's having to edit two documents together and opening two windows rather than printing both out and copy-typing. I've seen those last two more recently than I care to mention. We need to make tools much easier to use. The majority* of all Excel sheets would be better served by being in a database. But a DB is to hard to use, let alone manage. That's assuming the office manager has even heard of SQL. I've had a computer for all of my living memory - and that certainly helps. But "Being Digital" is like a religion, just because you're born in to it does not make you an adherent. You have to devote your life to understanding how to be digital. T *Made up statistic Digital Native is a state of mind.

It’s using Google / Wikipedia as your primary choice for settling an argument.
It’s checking whether your friends are free by looking at Facebook.

But it runs even deeper than that…
It’s needing to sort some data and knowing that you can use Excel.
It’s having to edit two documents together and opening two windows rather than printing both out and copy-typing.

I’ve seen those last two more recently than I care to mention.

We need to make tools much easier to use. The majority* of all Excel sheets would be better served by being in a database. But a DB is to hard to use, let alone manage. That’s assuming the office manager has even heard of SQL.

I’ve had a computer for all of my living memory - and that certainly helps. But “Being Digital” is like a religion, just because you’re born in to it does not make you an adherent. You have to devote your life to understanding how to be digital.
T
*Made up statistic

]]> By: Bill http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native#comment-5812 Bill Wed, 13 May 2009 11:53:38 +0000 http://strange.corante.com/2009/05/13/unpacking-the-concept-of-the-digital-native#comment-5812 As Palrey notes, there is some salience to the term but at the same time thinking in those terms can be wildly misleading. Based on generation, I'm a digital immigrant. Except I've been using the internet since pre-web days. So I guess I'd be a digital native except I've never been into computer games. I'm not sure where I would fit. I wrote a post that touches on this not long ago, "<a>The class system alive and well and now online</a>," where I argued that we think on class as vertical (poor, middle class, rich) but it's also vertical - all these distinctions we make, digital native vs immigrant another example. One of the characteristics of how we define ourselves is the way the definition limits our view. (As you mention, the world wide web is hardly world wide.) btw ... I didn't really come to any conclusion except that we have to at least try to keep in mind that our views of the world are limited. As Palrey notes, there is some salience to the term but at the same time thinking in those terms can be wildly misleading. Based on generation, I’m a digital immigrant. Except I’ve been using the internet since pre-web days. So I guess I’d be a digital native except I’ve never been into computer games. I’m not sure where I would fit.

I wrote a post that touches on this not long ago, “The class system alive and well and now online,” where I argued that we think on class as vertical (poor, middle class, rich) but it’s also vertical - all these distinctions we make, digital native vs immigrant another example. One of the characteristics of how we define ourselves is the way the definition limits our view. (As you mention, the world wide web is hardly world wide.)

btw … I didn’t really come to any conclusion except that we have to at least try to keep in mind that our views of the world are limited.

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