Digital Nagrant?

What is a Digital Nagrant?

I think by now we've all heard about the whole digital native, digital immigrant divide that Marc Prensky brought to light. Today, I'm going to review 2 of Prensky's writings and discuss why I believe there is no clear line that divides natives from immigrants. Rather, there is a big gray fuzzy area.

In Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Prensky identifies, correctly I believe, that students today "think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors". They are "'native speakers' of the digital language" leaving the rest of us immigrants to the new world. These immigrants, he defines as "those of us who were not born into the digital world but ... have become fascinated by and adopted [it]." Great. But at what age does this cut off happen? He never really defines it. Why? Because it's undefinable. It's different for everyone.

With that in mind, let's take a look at The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native: What they do differently because of technology, and how they do it, where Prensky explains all the different ways of doing things as a native and why, even if we are doing them, we are still immigrants.

Communicating
The difference in a nutshell - Snail mail to e-mail to synchronous forms of communication.
Tools - Email, Chat (IM, text messaging), Cell phones
The advantages - Expensive and slow to fast and "essentially free".
Key benefits - Stay in touch more easily with friends and family, keep in touch with online-only acquaintances, meet people who share your own interests
Me (Digital Native) - Prensky says that digital natives dubbed the term Snail Mail for post office usage. Well, I've been using that term since 1994 when I first started using email on a regular basis. I also used email (on a VAX) as early as 1990 to keep in touch with an old boyfriend who went to a different school. I've basically stopped writing letters of any kind and often text my friends just to say hi. I go through withdrawal if my cell phone battery dies or loses signal.

Sharing
The difference in a nutshell - Secret diaries to online journals.
Tools - Blogging, Twitter, Webcams
The advantages - Interconnectedness
Key benefits - Know what's going on in your social group, better more effective networking
Me (Digital Native) - While I might not use a webcam to record my everyday life, I'm certainly not using it monitor anyone either. For me, it's a mechanism to record videos about specific topics. But, the real reason I'm a digital native here is that I maintain several blogs and I was addicted to twitter since day 1. I've also loved writing in a journal and now I can share my convictions, thoughts, questions with the world.

Buying and Selling
The difference in a nutshell - BestBest vs. eBay
Tools - Any online store or auction site
The advantages - Ease of use, reach, time savings, cost savings
Key benefits - Buy and sell anything you want
Me (Digital Native) - No, I'm not buying schoolwork online like some natives (teachers - keep an eye out for that!), I do lean more towards online purchasing than stores. First of all, it saves a tremendous amount of precious time and I can't usually find anything I want easier, and cheaper, than in a real store. I've also been known to sell my share of items on eBay.

Exchanging
The difference in a nutshell - Physical trading vs. Digital trading
Tools - Peer-to-peer (P2P) sites. Think Napster.
The advantages - Sharing
Key benefits - Trade digital items quickly. Items are often (not always) free of "ownership and cost".
Me (Both) - I was a big Napster fan back in the day, and still do a bit of "digital trading" now and then again, but it doesn't occupy my entire life. I'm split on this.

Creating
The difference in a nutshell - Creating and innovating easily
Tools - Web sites, Avatars, Mods
The advantages - The ability to express oneself using powerful tools
Key benefits - Freedom of expression
Me (Both) - I was teaching other people HTML before most even knew what it stood for. I've been creating websites for over 10 years in one form or another. I have Avatars on Second Life, Wii, etc... Modding? Machinima? I have no idea what these are. So, I have to go both on this one.

Meeting
The difference in a nutshell - Face to Face vs. Online meeting and arranging
Tools - Chat rooms, Wikis, NetMeeting, Meetup.com
The advantages - Geographic location is not a limiting factor
Key benefits - Meet others with common interests easily and inexpensively
Me (Both) - Well, I don't spend hours in chatrooms meeting with perfect strangers and I do have tons of face-to-face meetings, conferences and the like for work. However, I'm a big fan of meetup.com and a member of several of the Meetups. And, I've collaborated with others on quite a number of wikis.

Collecting
The difference in a nutshell - Coins and stamps to Songs and videos
Tools - Peer-to-peer applications, iTunes
The advantages - free, easy access
Key benefits - exchanging music and other media is a way to express yourself
Me (Digital Immigrant) - I have an iPod and use iTunes to buy songs, but quite selectively. My collection is in the hundreds not the billions.

Coordinating
The difference in a nutshell - Impromptu coordination of group projects (largely in a gaming situation)
Tools - MMORPGs
The advantages - self-coordination
Key benefits - problem solving skills, involvement in helping others for the common good
Me (Digital Immigrant) - Sure, I coordinate various stakeholders at work and school to faciliate group projects, but not like this.

Evaluating
The difference in a nutshell - Trust based on research and gut feeling to Trust based on ratings and reputation
Tools - Rating systems, Online presence
The advantages - quantitative measurements for evaluating trust
Key benefits - the ability to enhance your own stature by doing the "right" things
Me (Both) - As an eBay user, I'm already quite familiar with ratings. The better your rating the more likely someone will buy from me, and quite honestly, the more likely I'll buy from you. As for reputation, I know that my blog postings and tweets are already working to create my online reputation. I've also Google'd myself and I know where my online presence is. The reason I'm listing this as both is because I don't have the same mentality of natives when it comes to rating others: they know that "their online compass depends on them and are often more eager to comply" by commenting on posts, giving feedback, etc... I don't do this as often as I should.

Gaming
The difference in a nutshell - "Casual or mini-games" (like board games, word games, card games and old video games) to MMORPGs (Massive Multi-user Online Role Playing Games)
Tools - MMORPGS, Wii (interactively), Virtual Worlds
The advantages - deep complex experiences
Key benefits - simulations, working together, "intricate, adaptive experiences".
Me (Digital Immigrant) - Ok, I admit it, I still like board games. Sure, I was a DOOM addict and we had managed to play it networked with one or two other people, but that's nothing like this. And, I'm currently addicted to Wii but I don't play it with others across the Net.

Learning
The difference in a nutshell - Libraries vs. Google
Tools - Google, Wikipedia, Blogs, etc.
The advantages - Information is more accessible (though potentially inaccurate).
Key benefits - Learn what you want to learn about.
Me (Digital Native) - I actually had to use a Microfiche for a class last semester - I was appalled. I didn't even remember how to do it. Who goes to the library anymore? I do all my research online thanks to my school library collection online, Google scholar and more. Now, Prensky also says that the big differentiator is that Natives only learn and study what they are interested in and ignore the rest. As educators, we obviously want students to get a well-rounded education. But, for me personally, I do the same thing. Why would I spend my limited resources learning things I don't have an interest in.

Searching
The difference in a nutshell - Phone Calls & Letters for Research, Phone Books, Catalogs, Dictionaries vs. The Internet
Tools - Google, Wikipedia, Blogs, etc.
The advantages - Information is more accessible (though potentially inaccurate).
Key benefits - Everything is available online.
Me (Both) - There used to be a segment in Wired magazine called "Old Way or Net Way" which examined which way was faster for finding information. Invariably the Net usually won. I've become adept on finding everything I need online and it's where I think to go to first. I can't remember the last time I used a phone book. Should phone companies ask us if we want to get one or save the paper (planet!) for something else? But, Prensky also notes that Natives search for everything without filtering and don't have a feeling of "information overload" - I can't say the same thing.

Analyzing
The difference in a nutshell - Researchers vs. Group Problem Solvers
Tools - Distributed computing, Cloud computing
The advantages - Multi-tasking, shared resources
Key benefits - Contribute your skills to solve problems; be part of the network
Me (Digital Immigrant) - At Sun Microsystems, we have been using the same slogan for years: "The Network is the Computer". This takes it one step further: "The Network is the Cloud" or something like that. Natives are opening up their devices and computing resources for others to use and volunteering to help with analysis projects. I love the idea but I'm not doing it today.

Reporting
The difference in a nutshell - Journalism to Self-publishing
Tools - Blogs, Websites, Wikis, Mobile Blogging, Video blogging, Facebook
The advantages - Sharing
Key benefits - Report on your own life
Me (Digital Native) - Case in point, this blog.

Programming
The difference in a nutshell - Hire Developers to Be your Own Developer
Tools - Personalization/customization features in devices, Flash, JavaFX, etc...
The advantages - Speed, Customization, Innovation
Key benefits - Don't wait for someone else to do it; Be creative
Me (Both) - I'm the first one to personalize my devices, add applications, and find creative tweaks, but I don't classify myself as a programmer. I've written code in C and Java, but a programmer that doesn't make me. I don't know Flash though I'd like to. I cross both sides on this one.

Socializing
The difference in a nutshell - Face to Face contacts vs. Online Contacts
Tools - Facebook, MySpace, myYearBook, Match.com, jDate, LinkedIn
The advantages - Helps with time management, Helps widen horizons and broaden networks
Key benefits - A more extensive way to meet, A faster way to catch up and stay in touch
Me (Digital Native) - Don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't go to parties and socialize in real life with friends and family. Of course I do and so do they. But, I'm just as immersed in the Facebook scene as they are. I dated using jDate, Match and eHarmony before they were popular and even did something called the Relationship Line which was like Match.com before the Internet.

Evolving
The difference in a nutshell - Continuously creating new online behaviors
Tools - The Internet, Mobile Phones, what ever is next
The advantages - Technology moves fast so adapt to keep up
Key benefits - Invent new creative ways of doing the same old thing faster, better, cheaper
Me (Digital Immigrant) - I'm swimming like crazy just to keep my head afloat of all the new technologies and the rapid pace of technology change. I think they have it down better than us.

Growing Up
The difference in a nutshell - Offline vs. Online
Tools - The Internet, Mobile Phones
The advantages - One additional place to learn about the world
Key benefits - More choice, more information, more exploration
Me (Digital Immigrant) - Ok, so I can't say I grew up online since I was already in my 20's when I was introduced to the Internet and all it had to offer. But, I did grow up in a tech friendly environment which I why I believe that I'm more a Digital Nagrant than one or the other.

So, if you like are like me: a techie type born in the early 70's, or if you just don't fit cleanly down one column or the other (I have 12 on each side, with 6 overlapping categories), you may actually be a digital nagrant.

To conclude - why is this all relevant to ed tech?
1. Know who your students are. Are they Natives? Immigrants? Nagrants? Not all of today's students will claim they are natives based on these classifications.
2. Know how the Internet affects their lives.
3. Know how they learn best.

My Online Presence - Part I

I knew that my online presence was fairly large but until I gathered this lengthy list of social sites for my Digital Media class, I don't think I realized just how visible I really am.

Here's where to find me and my view of these social media outlets.

Blogs
Gadget Girl's Education 2.0 (Blogger) - Everything having to do with educational technology.
Rockin' Robin (customized Blogger) - My Sun Microsystems blog focusing on Web 2.0, cool stuff that Sun does and more.
Kinderguarded (Wordpress) - The blog and website for my current venture. Kinderguarded is an online safety consulting firm helping families and schools to keep kids safe in the digital world.
Lloyd's Land (Wordpress) - A blog I maintain for my Dad - hosting podcasts of his childhood. He only managed to record one before he passed away in Sept '08 but I promised I'd keep it going and add to it.
On Blogger vs. Wordpress - I really like the ease of use of Blogger and the ability to add lots of different widgets to the site quickly and easily. I chose Wordpress for Kinderguarded solely due to it flexibility in creating multiple pages for a more complete web site approach. Adding new posts in both is very easy, especially when compared to the customized Blogger used at Sun which requires knowledge of HTML to post anything pretty or useful. I also wanted to note that there are some educational specific blog tools that are worth investigating. Edublogger is a for-fee blogger site for teachers and students. Classblogmeister is a free alternative. I have not used either one personally but know of teachers who have and they love it.

MiniBlogs
Robin611 (Twitter) - My main twitter feed, especially focused on ed tech tools.
Kinderguarded (Twitter) - Twitter feed for online safety.
Web2Sun (Twitter) - A twitter feed I just introduced to discuss Web 2.0 at Sun Microsystems.
On Twitter, Twhirl and more - I'm addicted to twitter. I have been since day one. I immediately saw the usefulness, particularly from a professional development standpoint, having made connections with other Ed Tech professionals, teachers and more. I'm still trying to figure out where Twitter might be effective as an educational tool for students. Twitter tools that I use include Twhirl - a desktop application for twitter which really helps me manage the influx of tweets (at least when I'm at my laptop). I have Twitter updates sent to cell phone for robin611 - but unfortunately can't set it up for two twitter accounts to the same number. My twitter feeds are also widgets in 2 of my blogs. Lastly, I use MoTwit on my Palm Centro. It pales in comparison to TwitBerry but I hated the Blackberry and love my PalmOS. I also use TweetScan to find any tweets on educational technology, online safety or other interests. Lastly, because I was tired of missing so many potentially good tweets containing links I wrote a Yahoo Pipe (Twitter_URLs) to capture these links and send it to my Google Reader. Since I thought this might have some value to you, I've published the pipe for your use. You just have to login in to Yahoo, edit the pipe to include your username and password, and select your favorite reader.

Facebook & more
Robin Wilensky - Facebook for friends.
Robin Goldfarb Wilensky - Facebook for work.
On Facebook - Are you sensing a pattern here? I like to keep my online presence separated by life function. No offense, but my work colleagues don't need to know what I'm doing over the weekend or at night and my friends don't need to be bogged down by the trillion Sun annoucements and events that show up in the mini-feed. BTW, I'm also addicted to Facebook. I love reconnecting with old friends and distant family. I've also created a Page for Kinderguarded - become a fan! I also have a MySpace account and a myYearbook account but to be honest I only use these to understand how kids might be vulnerable online and explain to parents how to safeguard the accounts.

Ning - Make your own social networks
Kinderguarded Online Safety - No surprise here. This one I created.
Digital Dialog - Encouraging regular communication about safe, appropriate, and fun uses of digital technologies.
Classroom 2.0 - The community for educators using Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies!
College 2.0 - Online Learning and Web 2.0 in Higher Education, social network with blogs, forums and RSS feeds
Passionate Teachers - A special group of teachers, who consider teaching as a mission and not just a job. Add to it your drop of knowledge.
Sun Alumni - A social network that I was asked to create to facilitate networking among those who were formerly employed by Sun. Yes, I still work there.
Sun-ISIG - A customized Ning site for Sun and it's work with Immersive Education.
On Ning - I have to be a fan of Ning since it was founded by Marc Andreseen, founder of Netscape. It makes a lot of sense to me to form social networks around topics of interest. It's kind of like a virtual Meetup. I've listed the Ning communities that I'm a part of.

Since this post is already quite long, I'm going to end here and pick this up in Part II. But, before signing off you might be wondering why I've labeled this as an Online Safety topic. The reason is that if you are going to keep yourself safe, you'd better start with knowing where you are online. First step: Google yourself. And, women - don't forget to also google your maiden name... :-)

Who am I?

For the purpose of my loyal followers, I feel inclined to tell you that I will be writing a number of posts over the coming months on the topic of "Digital Media in the Classroom" for a course of the same name that I am taking. These will be tagged under the label: MSTU 5814. I opted to use my personal blog site for this course rather than creating a new one because other than this introduction I feel that most of the posts will be relevant to the topic of Education 2.0.

For the purpose of my fellow classmates, here is an introduction about myself, why I am taking this class, the experience I bring to the group and some insights on the potential for social and digital media in the classroom. I look forward to reading and commenting on your posts as well.

Introduction: I have been working for the last 15 years at numerous technology companies including Netscape Communications, and currently Sun Microsystems. Over the years I have been in technical support, technology architecture and sales support roles and my product specialties include infrastructure software, desktop & thin-client technologies and most recently Web 2.0 tools. I have a B.S. in Business Administration/Marketing from SUNY Albany, an MBA in Management Information Systems from Binghamton University and am currently working towards my M.A. in Educational Technology at Columbia University Teachers College. I got married in 2006 to my wonderful husband, Neil and we live in Plainview, NY. My hobbies include playing tennis, traveling, genealogy, cooking, reading & writing.

Why I'm taking this class: I have always had a passion for working with children but I never knew exactly how I wanted to implement this in my life. I recently decided to pursue this career shift to begin down the path of helping to integrate technology into the classroom and educational venues. I am very excited at the prospect that Web 2.0 technologies and digital media offer to the educational arena and look forward to exploring this with you further.

Experience: With regard to digital media in education, the experience that I bring comes from several opportunties that I've been working on with customers of Sun Microsystems. The first is a project called Wonderland which is an open source virtual world similar to Second Life. Wonderland is a great platform for distance learning and real-world simulations. I'm also involved in the Immersive Education initiative using Wonderland. The second project is a new way for companies to deliver training beyond traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS's) and is similar to YouTube in implementation. We call it the Sun Learning eXchange internally. Videos, presentations, and podcasts explaining how our technology works are available to employees, partners and customers worldwide. My other experience comes from my work with and understanding of children, having tutored students in reading and being a big sister in the NYC Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter for over 2 years.

Insights: Since the summer, I have researched and explored numerous ways that digital technologies and online socialability can benefit students. Besides the ability to engage students and teach to the ways that they learn, there are distinct cognitive advantages to utilize technologies that making learning personal and relevant. Students will learn and understand concepts and skills that will be critical for 21st century careers and life.

Twitter Links for the Security Conscious

Addicted to Twitter

Great! But, do you know who’s following you? I mean, sure, you know their twitter ID but what do you really know about these people? Or, are they "people"? There are many direct marketers and other less-than-savory folks out on twitter. To protect yourself from these unfriendly followers, try using TwerpScan. The caveat is that you need to login to run this. Twerpscan will provide a list of followers they recommend blocking.

Another handy Twitter tool is TweetEffect. TweetEffect will let you know why people are choosing to follow you based on your latest tweets.

Lastly, if you want to check out the profile of a specific Twitter follower, try SocialWhois. For example, if you enter Robin611 (my Twitter id), you’ll see my self-defined Twitter description, what I’m interested in and where to find me online. SocialWhois is limited by the fact that information either comes from SocialWhois itself, Twitter or FriendFeed.

Digital Learners

I realize it's been a while since my last post. If you read that one, you know that my father was very ill. He passed away about a month ago and I haven't been motivated to write anything. However, I love this video that I had to watch for class and must share it with you. It's absolutely captures what we ought to be doing with technology in schools. Enjoy!



I attended a Learning conference this week called the Learning Innovation Network. Stay tuned for a review of the 2 day conference...

Podcasting for Posterity

Today's entry is not really about ed tech except in the context that I taught my father a new technology. You see, he is currently fighting a terrible disease and he wanted to be able to capture his memories for generations to come. At first, he requested that we buy some kind of voice-recognition software because he is really too tired/weak to type (and he's never been that a great a typist, by his own admission, to begin with). I explained that this software needed to be trained and he really didn't have the patience for that. Besides, I had a better idea. Why not record his thoughts and memories using the voice memo feature of his iPod video!? I bought him a special mic that works with his device and showed him how to use it and we even recorded the first episode interview-style! He loves it! Now, I'm the one who is converting the files to .mp3 and uploading it to his newly started blog (also created by me), but I think that's ok. He's very excited to be podcasting his memories for posterity and gets this burst of energy when he is recording the stories. It makes me feel great that there is something I can do for him which he is able to enjoy during this difficult time. Dad, I love you very much!

Please check out Lloyd's Land and post a comment so that he knows people are listening. Thanks!

Sun goes for Gold at the Olympics

Sun Microsystems unveils a new Facebook application created by Zembly (Sun's social network for developers of social applications) called myPicks Beijing 2008.



This Facebook game allows people to predict winners in the 2008
Summer Games on behalf of themselves and their countries.

• When you first add the application, identify yourself with your country.
  If your predictions are accurate, you win points. All points accumulated are also credited to
  your country.
  
• You can view the leaderboards of countries & individuals. You can also see how
  your friends are doing and how your fellow countrymen are doing.
  
• Using Zembly, this Facebook app scales to a very large number of users playing simultaneously so be sure to invite all your friends!
  

Use the widget to get some quick stats on the number of people playing the game for a particular country. The widget then takes you to a page that explains the game and then allows you to go to the location in Facebook where you can play the game.


Go for the Gold!