The next web site I am looking at is a wiki abut the concept of digital natives. In this way, it most certainly practices what it preaches in that wikis are a prime example of the way in which digital natives use the internet, allowing them to take part in prod usage, sharing information collaboratively and allowing anyone to edit or develop it without expecting money or any other payment in return.
To me this seems like the perfect way to discuss digital natives and the ways in which the new generation are making use of digital technology in order to communicate, as it is speaking in the same language as it were as the digital natives. In addition, as you can share the pages and sync them with your other networking sites, facebook, Wikipedia twitter etc. and take part in discussion, it seems like by adopting the practices of digital natives, digital immigrants hope to better understand them.
However, one irony is that the site claims to be for teachers and members of the older generation to get together and share ideas about different ways to teach and communicate with the generation of digital natives. This seems ironic in that digital immigrants probably would not initially think of sharing information in this way, perhaps they would prefer to gather information from a book, a reliable source they can trust, rather than anyone who decides to add their two cents to the wiki page. In this way would they really be willing to contribute to a wiki on the subject? From the amount of content there is on the site, and from the fact that it seems as if the majority of the hyperlinks are external rather than internal, it seems not.
URL: http://www.digitalnative.org/wiki/Main_Page
As Cara commented elsewhere, if you read enough of this stuff, you start to think -why are all these digital immigrants so convinced they're so different to digital natives -or their fellow immigrants?
ReplyDeleteAnd are natives so indiscriminantly native?
I definately think the idea that all people born prior to 1980 are immigrants, and therefore UNABLE to cross into the natives terrority seems illogical. I know plenty of older people who seem just as 'au fait' as plenty of the digital natives I know. I don't think it's as definite as lots of what I've been reading suggests.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the boundaries are more blured than a lot of the readings make out.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how long is a digital native actually native for? When a new technology comes out that we (natives) choose not to pick up...are we natives for some digital tech and immigrants for others? It's all rather unclear..