This is actually inspired by several blog posts and comments of people in this class. Katie ponders on what and how we identify ourselves in terms of our degree of being digitalized, as digital natives or digital immigrants. Amy is concerned that teenagers are too engaged in digital media use that they ignore real people around them. Researchers are worried about the correlation between heavy media use and school problems. Jin Zhang would not be happy if she lost her ability to write with pens and paper to typing text into a computer or into a cell phone. I myself, trying to read and write only on computer on one hand, get annoyed on the other hand by the pain in my neck and shoulders because I have sit in front of the computer for too long.
It seems that we are still far from finding a healthy, balanced, and productive way to handle this world where physical environment and virtual environment are weaved into our life. How do we balance our time and attention between digital communication and face-to-face communication? How do we use the digital media tools productively instead of being a mere consumer of them? These may be questions that every one of us needs to figure out. (And they could also be good topics for discussion with our media-addicted students). What are your thoughts on our position in this half-digital-half-real world? What are the other questions that you want to ask about this issue?
What shall we do with these kids?
The New York Times just published a stunning article: if your kids are awake, they are probably online.
Unfortunately, research shows some negative results about such addiction to media. "47 percent of the heaviest media users — those who consumed at least 16 hours a day — had mostly C’s or lower, compared with 23 percent of those who typically consumed media three hours a day or less". Of course, we don't know whether media use causes academic troubles or academic troubles turn the kids to heavy media use, as suggested by NYT.
Another possibility is that there may be something wrong with the current education so that it can't attract the attention of some kids and recognize the potential and value of these kids. These kids, who might turn into some very creative people some day, end up being addicted to online media use.
Researchers of youth literacy have demonstrated the incompatibility between institutional education and web media use[1]. Almon, a "loser" in high school, became a confident, popular guy in his online J-Pop community. He used to feel inferior to other students because of his poor English grades and strong Chinese accent. But since he developed a webpage featuring his favorite Japanese singer and joined the online J-Pop community, his writing ability in English improved dramatically and he is proud of expressing himself in English.
Sadly, this achievement in the virtual world does not guarantee a good academic performance in school or popularity in the real world. This warns us maybe the current education fails to fully recognize people's potentials and values. Maybe the education is not ready to prepare kids for the age of digital media which is already part of children's real world.
The link between academic failure and success in / addiction to online media use also raises serious thoughts about the zest towards the use of digital media as education tools. As Katie said, maybe it's a bad culture. Maybe we, as educators, should not leave the kids addicted even more to the digital media.
[1] Lam, W.S. E. & Kramsch, C. (2003). The Ecology of an SLA Community in Computer-Mediated Environments in Leather, J. & J. van Dam (eds.), Ecology of Language Acquisition. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Publishers.
Unfortunately, research shows some negative results about such addiction to media. "47 percent of the heaviest media users — those who consumed at least 16 hours a day — had mostly C’s or lower, compared with 23 percent of those who typically consumed media three hours a day or less". Of course, we don't know whether media use causes academic troubles or academic troubles turn the kids to heavy media use, as suggested by NYT.
Another possibility is that there may be something wrong with the current education so that it can't attract the attention of some kids and recognize the potential and value of these kids. These kids, who might turn into some very creative people some day, end up being addicted to online media use.
Researchers of youth literacy have demonstrated the incompatibility between institutional education and web media use[1]. Almon, a "loser" in high school, became a confident, popular guy in his online J-Pop community. He used to feel inferior to other students because of his poor English grades and strong Chinese accent. But since he developed a webpage featuring his favorite Japanese singer and joined the online J-Pop community, his writing ability in English improved dramatically and he is proud of expressing himself in English.
Sadly, this achievement in the virtual world does not guarantee a good academic performance in school or popularity in the real world. This warns us maybe the current education fails to fully recognize people's potentials and values. Maybe the education is not ready to prepare kids for the age of digital media which is already part of children's real world.
The link between academic failure and success in / addiction to online media use also raises serious thoughts about the zest towards the use of digital media as education tools. As Katie said, maybe it's a bad culture. Maybe we, as educators, should not leave the kids addicted even more to the digital media.
[1] Lam, W.S. E. & Kramsch, C. (2003). The Ecology of an SLA Community in Computer-Mediated Environments in Leather, J. & J. van Dam (eds.), Ecology of Language Acquisition. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Publishers.
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