First quick thought on digital literacy conference

At the end of last week's conference on digital literacy, there was some (Prenskyite?) discussion about young people's technology-mediated multi-tasking and the effects on their brains.

It struck me as yet another example of (parental, teacherly etc.) anxieties about the effects of technology on young people's behaviour and intellectual development.

A couple of days later, my nine-year old son spent most of the weekend playing football in the park with other boys. He's at an age where I'm not sure if I should let him play in the park unsupervised (it's only 5-6 doors from our house) or if I should be there. Anyway, I let him play unsupervised, occasionally wandering down to check things were ok. Finally, as afternoon turned to early evening, I had to drag him back home: That's enough fresh air and physical exercise young man, don't you think you should be playing some video games.

My point is, I guess, that those making statements about the harmful effects of technology on children's cognitive development probably need to take a chill pill. Most of the nine-year olds I know are as busy playing football or collecting Match Attax cards as they are glued to the PSPs or XBoxes (i.e. not very different to what I got up to as a nine-year old).

Extract from digital youth summary

youth use online media to extend friendships and interests. Most youth use online networks to extend the friendships that they navigate in the familiar contexts of school, religious organizations, sports, and other local activities. They can be “always on,” in constant contact with their friends through private communications like instant messaging or mobile phones, as well as in public ways through social network sites such asMySpace and Facebook. With these “friendship-driven”practices, youth are almost always associating with people they already know in their offline lives. The majorityof youth use new media to “hang out” and extend existing friendships in these ways.

http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-TwoPageSummary.pdf

For mash get Smash

There's an advert I loved as a kid (now, of course, on YouTube, that repository of collective cultural memory).

The ad was for a powdered mash potato mix (mmmm ... yummy) and featured robots from outer space laughing at simple earthlings making do with peeling and cooking actual potatoes.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uKt-KR1TsRg

It's how I think my own (digi)kids will react when I show them my old LPs (maybe even books?).

Here's a quote I like on the 'digital native' question

Talking about youth as digital natives implies that there is a world which these young people all share and a body of knowledge they have all mastered, rather than seeing the online world as unfamiliar and uncertain for all of us.
Henry Jenkins
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/12/reconsidering_digital_immigran.html

New technologies and moral panics

I think there's a media fixation with the negatives of technology that's not always helpful.

Sometimes this anxiety is justified - mobile phones and the phenomenon of 'happy slapping'.

Sometimes it seems to be an expression of incomprehension and fear at changes that are taking place that are leaving many people behind.

Here's the front page of a free newspaper last week reporting on how some south London gangs have posted videos of themselves on YouTube (see 7 Things You Should Know About YouTube) brandishing guns and punishing rival gang members.

The start of a new moral panic about Web 2.0 technologies?

The Information-Age Mindset and Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

A blog is maybe a good place to stick all those useful articles you've found and make use of in a place that others can see and make use of.

Articles of interest to colleagues who've posted on generational differences are:

• Frand, Jason L. “The Information-Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education”. EDUCAUSE Review. September/October 2000. 19 February 2007
  http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm00/articles005/erm0051.pdf
  
  
• Oblinger, Diana "Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials: Understanding the 'New Students,'" EDUCAUSE Review. July/August 2003. 15 June 2007
  http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0342.pdf
  
  
• Prensky, Marc “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1”. On the Horizon. October 2001. 19 February 2007
  http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
  
  
• Prensky, Marc “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 2”. On the Horizon. December 2001. 19 February 2007
  http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
  
  
• Radford, Marie L. and Silipigni Connaway, Lynn “Expect the Unexpected: Urban Screenagers’ Communication and Information-seeking Preferences.” Paper presented at the National Communication Association preconvention seminar, Urban Communication: Creating Sites for Connection and Action, organized by Gary Gumpert & Susan Drucker, 15 November 2006, San Antonio, Texas (USA). 19 February 2007 http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/synchronicity/resources/nca2006-screenagers.pdf

Perhaps you have other articles on similar themes ...?