UberNoggin

Most folks who know me know that I disagree with the idea of Natives and Immigrants in terms of technology (ala Prensky). Today’s high schoolers and undergrads are not natives to technology. They don’t have some magical innate ability to understand new technologies. What they usually have is a clear lack of fear when encountering a new technology. They aren’t afraid to try to figure it out and it makes them look more “native.”

As is typical, though, it’s easier to criticize someone’s idea and much harder to suggest a replacement so I’ve been thinking hard about better terms to describe the almost palpable difference between “us” and “them,”  looking for a metaphor that helps us understand rather than label, empower rather than excuse. So here’s the idea I’ve been playing with recently. It may not be the right one so I welcome feedback.

Revolutionaries and Beneficiaries

Revolutionaries: Those who have been and are involved in the development, application, and implications of technology accessible to the masses. Regardless of age or education, these are the folks who develop new technologies or ways of thinking about technologies that pave the way for mass adoption. This also includes those who think about the application and effects of these technologies (educators, philosophers, futurists, early adopters etc)

Beneficiaries: Those who benefit from the actions of the Revolutionaries via mass accessible technologies and their application. For example, my students don’t have to wrestle with whether using a word processing program is beneficial to their work because others (educators, technologists, researchers, previous users) have already done the footwork to prove that the convenience and ease that word processing possesses over a typewriter, for example, are worth learning the software.

These are not closed categories. A Beneficiary could easily become a Revolutionary if he/she begins to think about technology in new ways rather than just benefiting from advances and adopting them. Revolutionaries may become Beneficiaries if they settle into a technology they are comfortable with and stop comparing it to other options or stop thinking about the implications of that technology’s use.

I would suggest that most of us are both Beneficiaries and Revolutionaries. When I drive my car or use my microwave I typically don’t think about the way they’ve changed my life. I press the buttons and my popcorn pops. If my microwave breaks and I have to learn to pop popcorn on the stove I may start thinking more like a Revolutionary: “Wow! That microwave really changes the way I live.”

Neither way of thinking is superior to the other. Both have their place. If I allowed myself to get bogged down in Revolutionary thinking every time I switched on a light I’d not get much done. If I blindly adopt every new technology that comes along my quality of life would, no doubt, drop as I tried to use everything in the course of my day without judging them for their usefulness.

So? What do you think? Do these terms ring truer to you than the Native and Immigrant? Are there better terms to describe these ways of thinking and adoption?

It’s not always easy to see how Second Life can be useful for training. In many cases it’s just not the best tool for the job but sometimes a training need just matches perfectly. Kelley Executive has a great face to face training program to help companies understand the differences in generational management needs. In their current sessions, participants learn how each generation’s views on management, technology, employer feedback etc can be different and how to work around those differences to leverage strengths. But we wanted to be able to offer the training to geographically disparate groups while maintaining the interactivity so I translated it into a SL experience.

Introducing the Work Style Totem Activity. Participants get a copy of the totem (as seen above) which asks eight questions related to their preferences for management, collaboration, and technology in the workplace. Darker colors represent more traditional views; paler colors match Millenial workstyles. After each participant had completed their totem the group has an easy to understand visual representation of their preferences and a great discussion ensues.

It’s a simple activity. The totem was easy to build. And yet, the delivery method (ie in SL) allows for groups from all over the world to come together and participate in the session. It works because it focuses on the strengths of the SL platform while maintaining the interactivity crucial to the training.

Have you translated a F2F activity into SL? Did it work? Tell us about it!

Henry Jenkins’ awesome blog “Confessions of an Aca/Fan” has once again brought up the topic of the digital natives and immigrants initially conceptualized by Marc Prensky (See link here to read Henry’s very thorough post). As I travel around speaking to groups about Web 2.0, Second Life, and other technologies that are changing education, I often get asked about natives and immigrants but I realized, while reading Henry’s post, that I’ve never blogged up my answer to the issue regarding the terms and the shifts the terms are meant to capture. So, since I’ve got laryngitis and had to cancel a talk for today, I thought I’d blog instead.

When I give talks about the digital and education I usually make my case by presenting facts about the Millennial generation and their technology use to justify that educators really need to begin paying attention to the changes that are upon us. I present stats from Pew, Gartner, Forrester, and other research groups to set the stage for the conversation but I have to acknowledge that the numbers really don’t create a full picture of what’s happening. I, after all, am not in the group traditionally termed as “natives” and yet I exhibit all the traits. I am my own proof that the difference between native and immigrant isn’t age related. Acclimation and adoption of technology is not generational. I understand though, how looking back, Prensky might have thought that a new generation was bringing about the change. His terms give us something to scaffold conversation from and, for that, we should be appreciative. But I think we all know that there is more to these technology-adoption shifts than an age group growing up with access to computers.

I narrow the phenomenon, the difference between those who readily adopt and include technology in their lives and those who are hesitant or resistant to technology, down to two causes: 1) exigency and 2) lack of medial hauntings. Let me explain.

Exigency Creates Digital Lives

I do not know how to drive a race car, parachute from a plane, or play piano. These are all skills that I’ve never needed to know or had adequate motivation to learn. Now, if someone told me tomorrow that the plane I’ll be boarding on Friday will have engine trouble and that I’ll need to parachute to safety you can bet I’d be researching it today. I’d have an exigency to learn the new skill. For many people who are termed immigrants, or techno-hesitant, this exigency to adopt a digital lifestyle isn’t there. I learned to use email when I found out that I could communicate with friends who lived far away without incurring phone charges. I learned to create web pages when I realized that I really wanted to have an online presence to use for job applications (and I learned to code HTML in Notepad, thank you very much!). My mother learned to use a computer, and then to blog, when she became basically house bound due to illness and realized that using the internet would allow her to travel virtually and still keep in touch with the outside world. My soon-to-be-mother-in-law (who is in her late 60s) began adopting technology to keep in touch with her children, who are spread from coast to coast. In all cases, there was an exigency. A pressing reason to adopt the skill, to let the technology invade our lives.

Many people we term as “immigrants” are simply folks who didn’t have an exigency to adopt a technology until later than others. Perhaps their career didn’t require it or their social network was very local and face to face. “Natives” are simply people who have a somewhat innate exigency or who have adopted so much that their lives before adoption are a blur of lack of connectedness.

Lack of Medial Hauntings Creates Natives

In an essay in Hawisher and Selfe’s Passions and Pedagogies for the 21^st Century, Sarah J. Sloane writes about a student who has “medial haunting,” conceptions of a new technology based on how an older similar technology worked. If we’re old enough, we all have medial haunting. If you ever used a manual typewriter than moved on to a word processor you can probably remember that you sometimes forgot that the word processor had functions that the typewriter didn’t. If you then bought your first personal computer, you, no doubt , made sure that there was a word processing program installed before exploring the computer’s other functions. When I moved to Office 2007 from Office 2000 I was endlessly frustrated by looking for familiar buttons that were suddenly gone or moved. I was using the new software with a strong medial haunting of the old software. Those of us who are old enough, or fortunate enough, to have had experience with earlier technologies are sometimes limited by their use when we move on to a newer one.

However, the group we call “natives”, today’s kids, are not haunted by earlier similar technologies. Their use of a cell phone is not hindered by their functional assumptions carried over from using a party line at home, for example. They aren’t intimidated by a 16 button console controller because they never played Atari with two buttons and a joystick. They adopt technologies easier because, for lack of a better phrase, they don’t know any better. They have no reason to be afraid of a new tool or to be fearful of a new gadget. I watch my 6 year old triplets pick up gadgets, poke at them, test them, and then use them much faster than I ever would simply because they aren’t afraid of them (probably because they didn’t pay for them, as I remind them when they play with my iPhone).

It’s important, though, to remember that you don’t have to be young to lack medial hauntings. You simply need to be someone who hasn’t had experience with a previous similar technology. And, on the converse, I think we can begin to understand the difficulties created by the digital divide. In addition to access, we must also consider perceptions and fears of technology that inhibit adoption.

Finally, I’d like to note that we should be careful of the assumption that being a native is somehow superior to being an immigrant. Immigrating to technology implies choice, reflection, and a critical approach. Natives, whether to a land or a technology, aren’t often able to fully step outside their culture to see it for what it is. In addition, I think we immigrants need to be careful how we treat the natives. Every time I speak to an educator who is determined to take away cell phones, shut down Wikipedia, or ban Facebook from campus I’m reminded of historical subjugation of natives. We ought to be very careful about imposing our immigrant, and I dare even say Conquistador, attitudes when dealing with native culture. There’s a whole lot we can learn from the natives.

Phew! The last few weeks have been insane with travel, talks, and lots of writing other than writing here. It’s nice to be back on terra ferma and on the good ol’ blog talking to my favorite people.

I’ve had a bit of a brainstorm lately and I’m still working through the details but I thought it would be fun to air them here and see what all you brainy (or noggin-y) folks have to say about it. I’m considering writing another book about using web 2.0 tools to streamline your life or accomplish goals. Something like “How to become Internet Famous in 30 days or less” or maybe “Web 2.0 and You”. Hoaky, I know but you get the idea. The more I travel around talking to folks about new technologies the more I realize it’s not enough to know where to click or what address to type in. The real power of these technologies is in how they change our lives. A technology is only as powerful as its ability to solve a problem or enrich our lives.

To that end, I’ve started reflecting on the concept of Digital Makeovers. To me, a Digital Makeover is the process of reflecting on one’s personal or business practices and identifying opportunities/problems that a technology can solve. You folks are probably all techno savvy enough to not need such help but I get to talk to tons of people who know that there is something big afoot in the digital world and just wish they had someone next to them at the computer or in the office who could explain it all and help them develop strategies to make the best use of what is available.

Non-profits seem to be a good target to start with because I think they could benefit the most dramatically from utilizing free online tools to maximize their budgets and mobilize volunteers. Plus, it’s just plain awesome to do good work for someone with a good cause. So this is where I’ll start. By reaching out to some local organizations and offering Media Sauce’s help to develop easy to implement strategies that make use of Web 2.0 goodies to improve their organization’s efforts.

Viva la geek!

Gotta love it when your work becomes a marketing bullet!

This poster was created to advertise a talk I’m giving at Notre Dame in September. It’s the ass-kickingest poster anyone has ever made for one of my talks. I love it!

In other surreal news, I found out yesterday I was nominated for Faculty/Staff Homecoming Queen. Ha!

Getting tired of the Learning Management System on your campus? Ever look to see how infrequently your students actually log in to see their assignments etc? Let me tell you, it’s pretty darn infrequently. So why not create a course site on a social network where they already live? Facebook now has several apps that make a near perfect course management system. Use “Courses”, a file sharing app, and a chat app and you’ve got every tool in Blackboard on a site that doesn’t go down, isn’t so bland that it puts you and your students asleep, and actually offers collaborative resources that BB can’t provide (oh and you’re not supporting a company which caters to administrators rather than instructors and students but that’s my personal grudge).

Give it a try and come back to tell us all what you think.

On Friday August 10 I’ll be presenting another “Web 2.0 Business Secrets Seminar” and we’ll be streaming it live on the internet! Please feel free to pass these instructions onto anyone and everyone who may be interested in watching the presentation.

To view the seminar live on the internet, you will need Quicktime player. If you do not have quick time player, you can download the software at http://quicktime-downloads.com/.

To get started:

1. click “start”
2. click “all programs”
3. click “quicktime”
4. click “quicktime player”
5. click “file”
6. click “open URL in new player”
7. copy paste this URL: rtsp://in-info-webmac.informatics.iupui.edu/live.sdp

You should then be set to go! The presentation will begin at 9:00am EST.