| This video brings up several interesting concepts regarding the ways in which people join the wide world of technology. This is a world that mostly ignores conventional paradigms of race, nationality, age or gender. And yet as a community there are those who are outsiders and insiders. People who either are or are not 'natural' members of this society. Some people believe, like Prensky, that individuals who don't grow up with digital technology will always be 'foreigners' who may learn to speak fluently but will always have a noticeable accent. This idea seems to easily |
lend itself to the idea that 'old people' will never get this stuff but young people will get it automatically.
Another view is the visitor-resident principle that is discussed in this video in depth. A visitor may use the internet, but goes on, does their business and then leaves. At the end of the day there is very little evidence to show that the visitor was ever there in the first place. A visitor often sees the web as a collection of 'tools' and is looking to partake of the content and expertise of the voices on the internet but doesn't add their own individual voice themselves. This is a contrast to the resident who 'lives' at least part of their lives online. A resident has an online persona that can be found by others in their network and sees the web as a social and communal space.
Looking at my own online habits I think that I am somewhere in the middle of the continuum between visitor and resident. Perhaps a little closer to the resident than to the visitor. I have a small digital presence in some corners of the web but I don't show up all that easily if someone were to search for me. However, some of the new tools and skills that I am developing as part of being a teacher have helped me to participate more fully in, and become more a part of, the digital community.
Another view is the visitor-resident principle that is discussed in this video in depth. A visitor may use the internet, but goes on, does their business and then leaves. At the end of the day there is very little evidence to show that the visitor was ever there in the first place. A visitor often sees the web as a collection of 'tools' and is looking to partake of the content and expertise of the voices on the internet but doesn't add their own individual voice themselves. This is a contrast to the resident who 'lives' at least part of their lives online. A resident has an online persona that can be found by others in their network and sees the web as a social and communal space.
Looking at my own online habits I think that I am somewhere in the middle of the continuum between visitor and resident. Perhaps a little closer to the resident than to the visitor. I have a small digital presence in some corners of the web but I don't show up all that easily if someone were to search for me. However, some of the new tools and skills that I am developing as part of being a teacher have helped me to participate more fully in, and become more a part of, the digital community.