Yaël and I worked towards an understanding of who a digital learner is and how they connect to each other. It was interesting to me to see a very different take on the articles. Yaël had checked up on some apps that exploit those who do not stay up to date on their privacy settings. A point she made that I had not quite brought to the surface of my thoughts yet was that many times it is the integrations that make our everyday lives easier that allow for these exploitations. For example, there is an app called Girls Around Me which shows girls in their real-time locations in the local area. More specifically, “These are all girls with publicly visible Facebook profiles who have checked into these locations recently using Foursquare.” (Brownlee, 2012) This stopped me in my tracks. The app links to social networks from foursquare and provides this information to anyone on the app. I keep my Facebook on lockdown, I don’t link my sites to my social media and I make sure that my location services are turned off whenever possible and this still makes me uncomfortable. Brownlee sums it up beautifully, “It’s that we’re all horrified by how exposed these girls are, and how exposed services like Facebook and Foursquare let them be without their knowledge.” (Brownlee, 2012)
We must keep adapting to anything that technology throws our way. As adults we understand this. It is for this reason that adults also know that we need to change our learning as the technology available to us changes as well. “What is required to succeed in education is a theory that is responsive to the context of constant flux, while at the same time is grounded in a theory of learning.” (Thomas & Brown, 2009) There needs to be constant movement in learning and what we know to respond to the pace at which technology is changing. In fact, this is neatly summed up in the concluding statement, “Where traditional models of learning have moved from models of direct knowledge transfer to broader notions of skills, we believe that neither of these is sufficient to explain and account for the fundamental epistemic shifts and new affordances that 21st century presents.” (Thomas & Brown, 2009) The interesting this is that students tend to be equipped to respond to this shift in technology within their personal lives outside of the classroom, it is the educational system that is lagging behind. These students are rarely seen without a cellphone or some sort of digital device. It is finding ways of connecting the learning to the classroom and back to their personal lives. This also applies outside the traditional classroom, Jenkins states that “The challenge is how to connect decisions in the context of our everyday lives with the decisions made at local, state, or national levels” (Jenkins, 2009) Students sometimes do not see the implication of their learning to their “real lives” and therefore are not interested in investing time or effort into it. “It is clear that different youth at different times possess varying levels of technology- and media-related expertise, interest, and motivation.” (Ito, et al., 2010) Learning and technology should never be considered separate entities. Even when there are examples of digital media far removed from the classroom, students still find ways to learn and succeed. Media is not isolating youth but “Contrary to popular images of the socially isolated geek, almost all geeking out practices we have observed are highly social and engaged” (Ito, et al., 2010) These students who work to cultivate their digital lives are developing skills they will need in the ever-changing landscape of digital media. I personally wish that my education has incorporated more digital media and learning. I sometimes find myself awash in technology and far behind my peers in technological literacy. As a recent example, I have avoided twitter because of the negative aspects related to an employer finding a twitter profile with less than desirable tweets on it. I am not learning how to tweet at a much slower pace than my peers. Thankfully, Yaël has been willing to guide me in the right direction. As I reflect on my learning I can see how a closed twitter like platform would have benefited me by providing a safe place to post my thinking before having it displayed to the rest of the world. In closing, I agree with Brownlee that “our approach to education and learning needs to be as rich and complex as the challenges and opportunities we face.” (Brownlee, 2012) We can not use a one size fits all model and we can not remain stagnant in our teaching practices if we are to continue to prepare students for the modern world. Works CitedBrownlee, J. (2012, March 30). This Creepy app isn't just stalking women without their knowledge, it's a wake-up call about facebook privacy. Cult of Mac. Ito, M., Baumer, S., Matteo, B., Boyd, D., Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., . . . Tripp, L. (2010). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media. Cambridge: MIT Press. Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: media education for the 21st century. Cambridge: MIT Press. Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2009). Learning for a world of constant change: Homo sapiens, Homo Faber & Homo Ludens revisited. University of Southern California.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorEllie E. Archives
November 2017
Categories |