Given a topic that I have no clue at all, the terms ‘Native’ and ‘Immigrants’, ‘Visitors’ and ‘Residents’ sounded real fascinating to me. How can one apply such adjectives onto a digital world? With much research and readings done online, I came to realize that the development of Prensky’s typology by White makes more sense and is not skewed towards being biased. White suggested that it was a continuum spectrum and users’ behaviour online depends on different situations, context and goals. This I had to agree with. It brings me back to understanding ‘Digital Literacy’ and how the society engages with the world via the presence and usage of the Internet.
The chance to read and see how my peers handle this new ‘foreign’ idea and have their take on giving their own thoughts and experiences was indeed amazing. It made me realize a different perspective that I never thought of at the beginning.
I like the idea of Ebra’s perception, thinking a little deeper and giving probable suggestions for the result of the different term – Resident and Visitor. He ended his post by mentioning a possible outcome of why we are classified under one of the category, which I find it pretty interesting – Is it because of awareness and comfortability? Why not?! Adding on to the comment box on Ebra’s post, I found out from my research that the rapid pace of development and the manner in which young people have responded to the opportunities available to them continue to challenge the safeguarding process (Atkinson & Newton, March 2010). I believe it is the advancement in technology that probably influence them to be unaware, and the intriguing bundles of information and websites online causes them to overlook on the risk that they may have. In addition, 30% of 7-12 year old and 11% of 13-16 year old say that no one has spoken to them about staying safe online (Ofcom, March 2009). I believe this can be one of the reasons to low awareness in teens these days. And I personally believe ‘Visitors’ choose to stay lesser online because they know the risk, they want privacy and they are able to evaluate, seive and manage the information provided.
Yi Ming’s post was well-balanced given the two different perspective that he mentioned and how one is flawed compared to the other. However, like how I have commented in his post, I find that acquiring technology is not an interest-based skill, it is a subconscious knowledge that we take on when we engage in digital world and sometimes we find a need to have such skills in order to accomplish work or recreation purposes. For instance, yes, we can be interested to find out whats the latest social media platforms BUT learning how to use it, is a natural instinct. Once you have it, you will know. I would really like to hear what are your views on this if you have any.
I also looked at Evan’s blog and find it amazing that he came up with his own mapping based on his own experiences and I agree with his thoughts by saying that there are certain unclear distinctions with relations to his engagement and actions online. Just like I do.
All in all, I do enjoy this topic and it allows me to understand the digital world in a different perspective at a whole new level. This understanding could be an aid to me as a learner now, and putting it in practice to understand people’s usage/ behaviour on Internet and their presence online if I were to work in a Digital Market Research firm. As a next step, I hope this could help me in giving me a direction to developing a professional digital profile and at the end of this module, be able to see an improvement in my literacy rate.
Cheers.
REFERENCES:
Safe Network. 2011. Be aware of the potential online risks to children and young people. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/help_and_advice/Pages/potential_online_risks.aspx [Accessed 28 November 2014]
COMMENTED:
http://yimingsotonmang2049.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/topic-1-digital-visitors-and-residents/#comments
https://ebrahimshakir.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/the-world-online/
SOWINZ 