Monday, February 4, 2008
Digital Native or Immigrant?
After taking that quiz, I determined that I'm a mix between a digital native and a digital immigrant (if thats possible!). A few of the words given to me, I knew nothing about...I haven't even heard them before. So in this case, I was an immigrant. But a little over half the words I did know. Also, the article explains that "Digital Natives percieve technology as their friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax, and communicate". When it comes to these things, I definitely rely on technology. When the term "emergent" is considered, I do not think that I am emergent, but more so between beginning and fluent. Tompkins explains emergent literacy as children who at an early age, begin observing the contexts as to when reading and writing is used, and applying it to their own use of reading and writing, which at this point is very basic. I have been using technology for quite some time, so I believe that my emergent stage was in elementary school, through using video games, computers, the TV, and so on. I can see how Tompkin's explanations of emergent literacy can be applied to emergent digital literacy. When I was first beginning to use compters or play video games, I watched the user first, then used it myself, gaining practice and picking up new skills towards using technology. In this sense, when it comes to technology and the digital age, emergent users find ways to use technology in their daily lives to better their understanding of this topic, and gain new understandings and more advanced techniques in the process, just as how emergent readers and writers use such topics in the context of their own lives to better grasp literacy. I think this quiz was very interesting and helpful in gaining a better understanding of emergent literacy.
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3 comments:
Your blog made me think about whether age plays a part in how easily you can move from being a digital immigrant to a digital native. Is it like learning a second language...where it is much easier to pick up if you start young? I have never thought about it like this, but I am sure there might be some truth in this. Generations after us already seem to have a better grasp on technology, perhaps because they were exposed to it at such a young age?
I am like you in the sense that I am a mix between a digital native and immigrant. We use technology everyday, but we do not understand all of the terms. I like how you compare people gaining knowledge with technology by using it daily to gain advanced techniques to how emergent readers and writers using topics in the context of their own lives to better grasp literacy. Everyone begins in the emergent stage in anything they are starting just like you with technology and video games. I liked how you related your own personal experiences.
Well said on your post, I do think it is possible to be a mix between the immigrant and native, and I think the point you raised about age has everything to do with this. Our generation was one of the first to grow up with computer labs in schools, and where everybody had a computer at home. Now that technology has advanced, we need to learn these new terms and technological skills so that we can be more towards the digital native stage.
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