The "digital immigrant accent" can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it.
Marc Prensky, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"
This is a click and paste from an article I am reading this morning. I am a digital immigrant. I know I speak with an accent when I go online. I know it. I KNOW it. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't go online and try and get stuff done.
By the way, this keyboard is rather irritating. If you hear that I have been fired for assaulting an inanimate object, then you know the inside scoop.
In any case, I have been trying to get better with this online thing. I've signed myself up with my employer to explore the world of Education and how Web 2.0 is now affecting it. Is this an investigation? Is this some sort of Action Research Plan? Can I be fired for blogging on company time, or will I be able to point out that it was they who got me blogging in the first place?
How do I demonstrate to the loyal taxpayer (more on that later) that I am not wasting their time by keeping and updating a blog while they are paying for it, however inconsequentially. How do I link the learning that some will do in the future to what I am writing today? For that matter, how do I do it now?
It is funny, I call myself a digital immigrant but I had to stop writing this post in order to help a co-worker click and paste a logo into a word document. Funny stuff man. Funny.
In any case, I have known for a long time that I was fundamentally different from most people. I read too much and do a lot of writing and pondering while I go about my business. I am someone who gets into a routine and then can seemingly get outside the routine by being there in body, but going away inside my head. I can drive and read at the same time, thanks to my iTouch. (Also, more on that later...I don't drive illegally, so no silly comments, thanks) I got the message. Further along this whole "I'm different" thing, I use a Macbook, whereas the rest of the staff here is stuck with these Dell works of fiction. Meh, I know I am working this post off of a Windoze machine at the moment, but that is because the routers here at work, just don't like OS X. I do believe that I will be doing most of my work from home. What else is new?
"Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures, " says Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine. And with this sort of idea, I finish off why I am just plain different. The last bit of info I'm sharing today deals with who I am, as a person. I find that as a Varsity athlete back in University and the fact that I am re-re-discovering the joys of beating the crap out of my body in the gym and on roadways, I am just plain different from the rest of the people with whom I work. I find that for all the fitness training that I do, all the reading that I enjoy, (also more on that later) the use of "Think Different" computers and the experiences I have had in my life lead me to one conclusion: Man, I'm pretty weird.
And I talk with a slight immigrant accent, well, at least digitally. What can I tell you. I'll probably print this off to edit it ...;)
Welcome aboard Chess502!
ReplyDeleteYour choice of Prensky quote gives me the shivers - do you ever get the feeling that by letting the program teach you without reading the manual that you might miss the big picture? Shouldn't we be thinking about the big picture? Or is that my accent showing...
I need the manual, but only at times. In my work life, I chuckle when I have to teach people much younger than I am about their own iTouch.
ReplyDeleteBut all the learning I did was off of trial and error with some references to the manual. Most of the products from Apple I own are similar enough in interface that it is almost instintual by this point.
Even that iPad, which more than likely I will buy AFTER something breaks.
You also have the skill set to know WHEN to go to the manual and when to tough it out through trial and error - and that point may be very different for students with a greater instinctual feel for new tech - but do they? And I suppose their manuals look different...YouTube anyone?
ReplyDeleteI recently bought a used Mac desktop through eBay for 75 bucks. I've been able to hook it up to the wireless in my house. As I make this comment, my 7 year old is writing and illustrating a story she created.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I am her technical manual.
But I did learn how to put in the wireless card and more RAM by watching three or four YouTube videos...