Essay ... I tried.

Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.

If you ever get the chance, take a moment to sit down and think about just how far the world has come in terms of technology. It is remarkable to think how the telephone was created, or the invention of the first computer that could fit inside a room, or being able to talk to loved ones on the other side of the world, to owning things such as iPods and gadgets that are constantly evolving, bringing joy to millions and migraines to many. In today's society, technology is an expected part of our lives and it is safe to say that our quality of life is affected by the types of technology we use and how "up-to-date" we are with the latest trends.

Marc Prensky and Dave Weinberger both analyse the way in which society use technology today and how people have drastically changed over the past fifty years, in relation to how we communicate. Both have slightly different outlooks, but both are expressing their amazement at how people today live their lives through technology. Although slightly dramatic, they give accurate portrayals of what people experience with technologies today.

"Students are not just using technology differently today, but are approaching their life and their daily activities differently because of the technology." (Prensky, 2004) View more at:http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf

Prensky discusses in depth, the different ways in which he believes contemporary users of the internet, or as he calls them "digital natives", approach different aspects of their lives. Quite literally, nearly everything can be done online: shopping, "meeting" new people without having to actually meet them in the flesh, expressing feelings and thought via social networks such as Facebook and Myspace or having a blog (such as this) .. collecting, creating, evaluating .. it's all done online. It is safe to say that people don't write letters anymore. Getting a hand-written letter nowadays is so rare, because everything is done via new technology. Why buy a CD when you can download off the internet for free?

As somebody who accesses the internet daily, I totally see where Prensky is coming from when he discusses these topics. He is right when he says that an entire generations' behaviour has change drastically because of technology. Prime examples of this are my sister and I vs. my parents who although do their best to keep up with the latest tech-trends, aren't quite as reliant or in "need" of it as we are. "Today norms and behaviors are changing much faster than in the past, because the technology changes rapidly and the Digital Natives are programmed to – and want to – keep up with it." (Prensky, 2004, pg 13) This sort of stuff gets lost on my family - my mum's doing better I'll admit, but my dad - he just cannot be bothered with it.

I like how Prensky speaks about it in a positive and realistic manner - when you read it, you believe what he's saying. I am someone who is always involved in the ever-changing technologies around us - I may not be as savvy and hip as I'd like, but the pathetic reality is that i tend to get withdrawals when cut off my phone, internet, Facebook, iPod etc.

Prensky elaborates on how communication is so very different from not even twenty years ago. People can find out other people's most personal details and what they look like with a couple of clicks of their mouse. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics shows just how many people these days are accessing social sites and meeting up. There are websites dedicated to playing match-maker - it's just not how it used to be and yet more and more people everyday are joining up and using the internet.

Dave Weinberger on the other hand - gives off a vibe of being frustrated, angry and even sickened by what the internet has become and what it is doing to the youth of today. "As a result, the Web is a mess, as organized as an orgy." (Weinberger, 2002) View more at: http://www.smallpieces.com/content/chapter1.html This is also an accurate portrayal of today's society and technology - with everything evolving and improving, there comes risks - youth is not benefiting from education as much as they should be. We all pay for uni, but how many of us actually come to class?

This is something I can completely relate to. I am paying for my education, maybe not today, but I will be and I have managed to minimise the amount of time I spend at university to it's absolute minimum, without failing. Are we learning better now with all this technology or were people better off in the days where telegrams would come and TV turned off at nine o'clock? Weinberger seems cynical and pissed off at the way technology has changed the way society learns things and I believe he is right in a sense. Although it's great to advance in technology, us as human beings are relying on it way too much. Those who spend hours on the internet, turn out to be somewhat useless when it's taken away.

Although Prensky and Weinberger give different opinions, they are accurate in portraying the way contemporary users rely on technology. The way we learn now is with technology - slideshows, computers, sound effects, movies ... New Communication is a prime example of somewhere you get absorbed by different technologies. Everybody's got to edit their photos and be looking perfect right? Check out: http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/ if you want a better look.

Hannah Smith

References:

Prensky (2004) The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native: What they do differently because of technology, and how they do it. web documentPDF] available at:http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf 16/10/2009 date accessed.

Weinberger (2002) Small Pieces Loosely Joined - Chapter 1 "A New World" [web documentPDF]] available at: http://www.smallpieces.com/content/chapter1.html 04/10/2009 date accessed.

Prensky (2009) Open Letter [web documentPDF] available at: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Open_Letter_To_The_Obama_Administration.pdf 16/10/2009 date accessed.

Marc Prensky - Home (2009) [web document] available at: http://marcprensky.com/default.asp 16/10/2009 date accessed.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself (2009) [web document] available at: http://www.youtube.com accessed website between 22/09/2009 - 22/10/2009.

Facebook Info (2009) Facebook Statistics [web document] available at: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics 17/10/2009 date accessed.

NCT09-GC (2009) Jason's Last Lecture [web document] available at: http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/ accessed website between 22/09/2009 - 22/10/2009.

Bennett, Maton and Kervin (2008) The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence [journal article] available at:http://api.ning.com/files/AkclmKAQ9nT0vPJuCYL9261SknCvwP1UJ-RaVQ7kZumzWZVPq5iNlfGrqf0Jpc3wUnK8A07FuVmRXQ1WRqnre5q2z53PRnT0/Thedigitalnativesdebatecriticalreview.pdf 18/10/2009 date accessed.

Basalla (1989) The Evolution of Technology [journal article] available at: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EBtnG36-1WIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=evolution+of+technology&ots=nGzIZSfd29&sig=wB70DFFnGeNKVOu6gczt5ly3Ljw#v=onepage&q=&f=false 18/10/2009 date accessed.

Joho the Blog (2009) Let's Just See What Happens [web document] available at: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/ 22/09/2009 date accessed.

Digital Natives (2009) Blog, Wiki, Book [web document] available at: javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/pages/splash.html'); 22/10/2009 date accessed.

Art-Less

I'm not gifted when it comes to visual arts. I love to write, I enjoy it and sometimes I produce pieces that I'm quite impressed with. But when it comes to art I've created ... well, it's not so fantastic. I did art in high school and only just scraped through with passes. I hated it. Probably didn't help that I wasn't a big fan of my teacher either. But for my final piece of assessment - I did it the night before and received a B or B+. I was stoked and it now hangs above my bed in my room.

"Euphoria"

Yeah, I called it Euphoria. I don't really know what bulltwang I came up with about how I created it. I made it by purchasing those tomato sauce squeezie bottles, filling them with paint and going crazy. I used tissue paper for texture and as I made a point of keeping the warm colours together vs. the colder ones. It came out looking like fire and nature were at a meeting point and because I loved all the colours, I ended up thinking of a euphoric place to escape to ... and thus created something that both surprised and impressed me haha. Nice.

Another piece of art I created, well. It's not really art. It's a book I have, an un-used visual diary that I put in all my fondest memories, my darkest moments, my break-ups, the people I've met that have changed my life ... gay kinda, but awesome to pick up and read once a year. It's weird ... i documented my season in Canada, the boys that broke my heart, the first dress I bought ... It's gonna be hilarious to read in 10 years haha.

Yeah that's just a snippet, but when I think about it - it is art. Anything can be art right? That's the beauty of it.

I Love Essays

So I've been working on this essay. Holy bejesus. I eventually decided to go with the first question. It seemed pretty straight forward once you got over the word "contemporary". I've taken a heap of notes, enough to last a lifetime and put a whole planet to sleep (sorry guys). I mean it's interesting, but both these fellas just use a lot of fancy words. Anyway, I'm off to put this beauty together and will hopefully post it by this evening. Awesome. :-)

Save the Whales! and then some Boring Stuff

I have looked at the questions for our essay many a time and just been baffled. There seems to be a lot of fancy words in some of the questions which I suppose are there to make it more confusing for me!!!! Haha, I plan on breaking down the questions and deciphering them properly. I seriously don't think I have the intelligence to create my own question when I can barely understand the ones given to us.

This is the week 8 tute task and I got onto signing an e-petition straight away. I automatically picked something I was passionate about, not something just for the sake of it.

This is the statement that will accompany the petition:

"We the undersigned wish to show our support for an end to whaling. We believe that the slaughter of whales for so-called 'scientific reasons" is wrong. We wish to add our voices to the global campaign to protect these precious mammals from extinction."

I signed this petition: http://www.whalesrevenge.com/poll.php?show_all=1 because it infuriates me when I see innocent whales being slaughtered by people who claim to be killing them for research. It has already been proven that you DO NOT NEED TO KILL in order to conduct research! GRRRRRRRR.

Good ol Barack Obama hey - when I last checked on facebook.com he was "feeling fired up and ready to go on health insurance reform—let's get this done."

President Barack Obama

I like Obama. I do.

I found out that my local, state and federal representatives are ...

Ron Clarke

Local Representative

Anna Bligh

State Representative

And ... K-Rudd (Kevin)

Federal Representative

I looked at the hansard to DEATH, the only time I found Ron Clarke mentioned was when people were bringing up topics that involved him. I think I found that he spoke in May, but I'm honestly not sure if that's right. I couldn't find it. How often do local members go to parliament? Kevin Rudd and Anna Bligh were there plenty of times.

The theory and practice of politics ... ah, to me, a lot of it is just a heap of FANCY WORDS.

What do I think about the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")? And what place does censorship have in a democracy?

I don't like it - yeah I get it's good to stop seedy buggers doing their sick kiddy porn thing and the like, but censoring the internet will limit us. I like how I am FREE to look up whatever I like, to browse, to read, to watch different videos ... to do, whatever I want really. I don't abuse the internet - I don't use it to look up sick things or to learn how to make bombs or whatever some crazy people do these days. But lots of people do and I understand why censorship is considered.

However, it infuriates me how the people of China for instance, have their news, internet and newspapers censored. They are living in a bubble, controlled by their government. It annoys me that they don't acknowledge such events as Tiananmen Square - they don't allow the people to read about it or commemorate it, to publicly think about those who were killed.

Censorship on the internet keeps people from knowing the truth they deserve to know. It wouldn't allow people to find out things about the world that they might find interesting or life-changing. Censorship will limit how much we know yes and in some ways its a good thing - but I'm pretty selfish and like things the way they are for me.

I don't believe censorship has a place in democracy. I understand the need for protecting younger children or to help stop people from being violated - and I'm sure that if something awful like that happened to my siblings I'd go crazy. I'd probably join the fight in encouraging censorship. But as it stands, I like my freedom ... I like that the government doesn't have that control and that they give us the CHOICE.

I just watched Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela verbally abuse a Fox News reporter because he was asked his opinions on the Iranian Presidents comments about people dying all over the world. It was most impressive and a bit scary - I like that we don't have censorship as such, because things like that wouldn't be aired if we did. Well, possibly.

Look, honestly. I'm not a fan of politics - I think the few good people that are there are swallowed up in a pool of people obsessed with greed and money and getting their own way. Nothing ever seems to GET DONE like the United Nations ... they all just seem to be sitting around - WHERE IS THE ACTION.

And what the hell has Ron Clarke done these days? I mean, I haven't even heard of anything he's done ... I am looking forward to the day when someone comes in - no bullshit - and gets things done. Like Rudy Guiliani. He's brilliant - what with the 3 strikes and your out bit. Anyway yeah ... not a fan, but I like living in a democracy ...

Free Speech?

In the lecture in week eight, we talked about cyberspace and censorship, politics and the internet ... it was very interesting - the censorship part was what grabbed me the most. I always knew that we didn't have free speech here in Australia. I think a lot of people believe we do - we have something similar, but we can be arrested for practicing free speech ... I guess if it incites violence or mayhem? Even if it just pisses someone powerful off, I'm pretty sure we can be arrested and thrown in jail for voicing our opinions.

I believe we're very lucky to be living in Australia all the same. We may not have the "free speech" bit like the United States does, however we still manage to voice opinions, can congregate in large groups to protest ... we are not as sheltered or as naive as countries such as China.

Maybe it's even safe to say that not having the right to free speech, works better for us. I think with America having the right to say whatever they want often leads to more violence, racial hatred and anti-semitism. As many upsides as the United States have, they are an extremely racist country (even though many people who live there try to say they're not).

Australia is by no means close to being perfect or non-racist, however I'm happy with the ways things are in that regard at the moment. If i were to see a "God Hates Fags" protest in my local town for instance, I would want those people arrested immediately.

But that's just me.

Week 7- Ireport

So i managed to figured out the passwords and usernames eventually for the iReport thing and uploaded my video to both the website and to my blog. It's a prettyyyy pathetic attempt at a video, but to be honest, I don't know anything about camera work, editing, making movies etc. and to be honest, didn't think we'd have to do anything like this in this subject ... but hey, I did something that actually made me laugh when I watched it, so whatever ...

Fictional Characters Protest

Uploaded onto iReport.com

I talked about different types of applications and software in an earlier post - I can confidently say that I'm in no way a computer buff. I DO NOT own an iPhone, and although I think they're amazing, I really don't know how they work nor do I have the desire to buy one. If I was given one - well, hell yeah. But seriously, I listen to my sister and my friends talk about how they downloaded new "apps" or whatever and I just don't get it ... maybe that makes me stupid but yeah haha, not he biggest fan.

Vampire Rave

Ok, so this is just some random bit I tried. The computers at uni wouldn't let me access a couple of the sites, so when I got home I managed to gain access to the site: http://www.vampirerave.com/ - only to be very disappointed. It was one of those absolutely irrelevant sites for "real vampires" and goths. Pfft, please.

I just looked at the site and shook my head the whole time. The site aims to catalogue everything to do with vampires and aims to bring together people who live that sort of lifestyle .. I was just like, "um ... okay then." It's often people like that who take the fun out of the hype of Twilight and the True Blood series. I mean whatever, if you wanna voice your opinions and stuff (just like I am right now) go ahead, but it wasn't really my cup of tea.

Vampires and the like are real in books and movies and fantasy stories, but people who try and convince other people that they themselves are vampires or those people who are so obsessed with vampires that it's all they talk about - ugh. It's WEIRD. To me anyway, don't mean to offend anyone, but I'm not a fan.