After the first reading from this weekt hat argued strongly for a distinction in digital natives it was great to hear the counter opinion to this from Paul Kirschner. I noted in my last past that while I found much of the argument from Prensky convincing, one aspect that really stuck out to me was the claim that there were different "brain structures' structures that developed in digital natives, and that these structures were so strong that they led to different political and ethical assumptions. I found this claim to be a little outrageous, but what was frustrating is that Prensky just states this without really backing it up with anything. However, in the second article from this week from Kirschner there is an overall critique of the view that being a digital native leads to different thought patterns, but Kirschner really focuses in on the aspect of multi-tasking. Thus, when I first started to read Kirschner I was really excited for a challenge to Prensky, hopefully on those topics I found most interesting, and while it was to some extent, I still think they were kind of speaking past each other. One aspect that I was convinced on by Kirschner is the evidence that points to the fact that some of the traits normally associated with digital natives are actually more prevalent in people who are not. This, to me, indicates that the distinction does not have to do with being born in an era where you don't know any alternative, but instead points to the fact that all of society that has embraced technology in their lives have been changed by it. Similar to Prensky, however, Kirchner at one point argues that multi-tasking could hinder brain development but doesn't cite anyone. Ultimately Kirchner argues that technology should be used to help student focus on a single task instead of multiple. While it is possible that Prensky would disagree with this, it seems that it would be compatible with his overall views on differences in digital natives. More convincing is the beginning part of the article which focuses on data measured between generations who were digital natives or not.
Knowledge Communities On Pinterest
As the week is coming to an end for EME 6414 I thought I would go through one final reading for the week as I compose my final blog post. I took a look at an article from Hu, Torphy, Opperman, Jansen, and Lo regarding knowledge communities on Pinterest. They focus on the informal learning that takes place through Pinterest, an online platform where individuals can post images of projects that they have been working on to spark discussions regarding best practices in the classroom or other topics that may come up. Not surprisingly, the authors found that Pinterest was the most popular form of social media use to share technology ideas for the classroom. Through the process of sharing ideas, the authors point out that social capital is developed among educators on Pinterest through this unique Social Knowledge Community. This is simply to say that when teachers are looking for new ideas they turn to those that they see as peers and mentors through this social space. Yet, what ...
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