New Media Reflections

I receive two newspapers per week that come to my mailbox for free. Now, granted, these are not top-of-the-line prize-winning newspapers, but they do have articles of local interest and sometimes have rather interesting articles. When I was reading one of these newspapers this morning, I realized the paucity of content. Then I looked at the classified ads, which used to be a hub of interest from job-hunting to finding used furniture or cars, and found they have now degenerated into merely a cheap ad source for various vendors of prey trying to get you to sign up for courses or training for that wonderful new career that is waiting for you.

I felt the loss of something valuable about this. I never realized that I used to somehow enjoy perusing the classified ads. That joy is gone. The articles oftentimes seemed like fillers, just to add fluff content to the pages. 

I then thought about how I gather news currently and became aware of how much I depend on online sources. I don’t even watch TV news; it’s too frenetic for me. It seems like they have to have at least several forms of news presentation going on at once, and there is maybe 10 minutes worth of news in a half hour newscast. They have learned the art of audiovisual fluff content.

Now, online I get to choose where I get my news from; can peruse just headlines, then go in-depth only in the articles that interest me. I can then find similar reports; opposing reports. It’s all so Web 2.0. I can select what I want to view, and I like it.

Unfortunately, I have little patience for long articles, which is probably why I like the snippets I find online. And I do like to read more, but only on subjects that truly interest me. I also like being able to share things I find with friends and relatives. They don’t need to subscribe to the same newspaper for me to share articles with them; I just send them a link.

I’m by nature a lover of print items, so don’t misunderstand my inclination toward online news. I still have probably over 100 books in my possession that I cherish. I tend to print out articles I like instead of reading them online. I also subscribe to a good number of magazines, but those tend to be specific to my interests, which differs from newspapers which present all manner of subjects I’m not interested in.

So are newspapers still relevant? I don’t really think so. Who has time to really sit and read the paper anymore? I suppose if you are out of the working world and have alot of time, it might be nice to spend time reading the paper. But truly, if I was in that situation, I’d still go online and maybe watch more of the audiovisual fluff on TV news.

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Mark Bauerlein has to be unpopular amongst today’s youth. Afterall, he’s calling them the dumbest generation. His contention is that, with all the social media around them, they are getting distracted and losing themselves in their social excess. He makes some good points, such as teens finding communication and sharing with friends more compelling than say, visiting the Smithsonian website. But he doesn’t blame them for falling prey to these excesses. He actually blames alot of the teachers who want to remain on the kids’ “good side” and downplaying the importance of history and deep study of literature. While he admits there are alot of informational sites available on the internet, the kids just aren’t going there. Apparently they aren’t reading either. 

I think we should listen and take heed to what he is saying, but not to panic. It will probably sort itself out over time. Now that we have this singularity where everyone is a content and media producer who is socially connected, we merely need to learn how to teach them utilizing these new tools and culture.

Here is an interview with him if you want to learn more of what he has to say:

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I have finally downloaded and tried Google’s new browser: Google Chrome. At first it seemed sparse. All of a sudden I have alot of screen space devoted to the web page I’m on. There are tabs, but a noticeable lack of all those toolbars and other clutter we have grown accustomed to from our Firefox and IE browsers. Now, remember this is still in beta, so it’s not a polished final version. 

In use, I find the tabs at top quite useful. They show the pages on tabs that I have open. When you click the plus to add a new tab, it not only brings up a fresh window, but it shows pages you’ve viewed recently. How cool is that? But a mention about history; there is no easy access to it. You have to go to the top right to a pull down to access it. It also doesn’t offer the traditional back button pull down history. I find I do miss the stop, print and history buttons on the main toolbar. I hope they add these in; there is plenty of room. I also had problems figuring out how to bookmark. It ended up being a several step process which, though useful, I found rather irritating. I want a button to add to a bookmark directly, without having to give it a path.

So after about a week of use, I find I hardly use Firefox anymore and find myself in Chrome. I think Google has a real winner here. I look forward to the updates and release of the final version.

Go ahead and download Google Chrome for yourself. While I’ve heard of some problems with videos playing properly, I personally haven’t had any problems with performance.

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I recently read an article by Marc Prensky entitled: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. There are alot of interesting articles at his website, and I recommend reading them.

This article explores the idea that there is a whole generation of students now who have grown up in the digital age. They have always had computer access, played video games, and have always been networked. These are the Digital Natives, and they are different than the older generation. As Prensky puts it: ” Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach”.  He likens this generation as possibly representing a “singularity”, which is an event that changes things forever, and there is no turning back. Because of the great speed of information access and networking, these students think radically different than the older generation. Their brains may even have neurological differences.

I like his comparison to national, or cultural immigration. The Digital Immigrants are those who have moved to the new place, maybe learned the language and the customs, but they are still a product of the “old country” and still speak with an accent. This would be me. As modern as I think I am, I grew up in the old way. I didn’t see my first computer until I was in college, and didn’t use one until I was a young adult. While I’ve adapted quite well, I still don’t function like the younger generation. One evidence of this is that I usually only have one or two windows open at a time, whereas the younger students will have at least a half dozen. They have grown up in this “country” and learned the language from birth, so they are “national” as well as cultural natives of this land of digital technology. It would be a mistake to think there is no social aspect to this. They are indeed still human and gregarious. They have found their own way to connect.

This difference becomes quite problematic in education. The old method of teaching involved a slow, step-by-step approach, with areas considered individually, and quite seriously. The Natives, according to Prensky, “are accustomed to receiving information very fast, like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access…They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work.” So we have old world immigrants teaching in a language and culture that the natives barely comprehend, and are most certainly bored with.

But all is not lost. Whether adapting new techniques and technologies is better than the “old” way or not is really a moot point. The digital generation is here, and they need to be taught. So the educators will have no choice but to adopt and adapt. I have always been a proponent of making learning more interesting, and more fun, yes fun. That is how we learned as children. We need a new paradigm for education and ironically, it’s the Digital Immigrants who are going to have to provide that.

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