The Google Generation & digital literacy

The argument: The technological nature of this new generation requires a reformation in the traditional educational system.

http://3dlearners.blogspot.com/2012/04/digital-natives-and-academics.html

Pro: Generation Google (aka, Millenials, Generation MySpace, Generation Media) is a new breed of researcher. Intellectuals have wonderfully flexible minds; absorb information quickly, adapt to changes and are adept at pulling from multiple sources. NEW HOPE FOR OUR INTELLECTUAL FUTURE.

Prensky: "Digital Native" vs. "Digital Immigrant"

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon. 9(5). 1-6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424816

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants part 2: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon. 9(6). 1-6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424843.

Tappscott: Growing up digital: The Rise of the Net-Generation (300 interviews of "N-Geners" who participated in online chat groups such as Freezone to identify the characteristics and learning styles of this group of techies. TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM.


Con: Google The human mind can only attempt to focus on one thing or another so with the gift of being more technologically adept... what has to suffer to make room for that? Generation suffers from internet-induced attention deficit disorder and lacks reflective awareness. Qualify of information is suffering in place of quantity of information. Term: information overload. SUPERFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Rowlands et al. (2008): "claims that although the generation demonstrates an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information they find on the web"

Rolands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B.,… Tenopir, C. (2008). The Google generation: the information behavior of the researcher of the future. Aslib Proceedings, 60(4), 290-310. doi:10.1108/00012530810887953

Shear: (2005) Studies law students: "Google Generation doesn't know about controlled vocabulary, hierarchy of information, or even the difference between a table of contents and an index"; take for granted that it isn't all out there electronically. They don't know how to research.

Shear, J. (2005, June). Elevating form above substance. AALL Spectrum. 10-15. Retrieved from http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/spectrum/Archives/Vol- 9/pub_sp0506/pub-sp0506-elevating.pdf

Obrien: (2008) Times article: "technology makes it easy for them to collage information, but not to analyze and understand it" SUPERFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

 O’Brien, C. (2008, July 23). How the Google generation thinks differently. The Times.

 


Alternative: 

Buckingham: You can't generalize by saying there's a new generation out there who's taking information by storm. Technology is an outcome or function of other social processes; but it suggests that it needs to be seen in the context of other social, economic and political developments. Be careful characterizing the discussion of children and technology.

Published in David Buckingham and Rebekah Willett (eds.) Digital Generations: Children, Young People and New Media (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2006)

*LIGHTBULB!*

Okay, it's been a few weeks since I've done any writing, but I've done a lot of reading and the more I look into the Google Generation, the more interested I'm becoming in my topic on digital literacy. Apparently, there seems to be a debate underway that a generation of students with sophisticated technical skills are entering the education system and expressing learning preferences for which traditional education is unprepared.

I'm interested in identifying who this generation is, what their research and educational characteristics are and how they differ from the generations prior. Is this Google Generation the real deal? Are they the new hope for the future or a flash in the pan of lasting informational brilliance?

What is this going to mean for our information literacy? Is a reformation of the educational, library and information organizations systems in order? Say we spend the time and money to make the changes--what does this mean for the instructors who are used to teaching in the traditional way? Not only are we going to have to change the way we teach information to our students, we'll have to change our whole approach so the students learn and retain the information we pass on.

There is so much talk out there right now and I only wish I could read fast enough! Get ready, I'm super pumped to start putting out some serious posts on this topic.

The Google Generation: Individuals born after 1993.

So far, I've found these two big thinkers on the discussion of the new techies coming through the educational system:

Marc Prensky: coined the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" to distinguish between those who have grown up with technology and those who have adapted to it.

• Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon. 9(5). 1-6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424816
• Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants part 2: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon. 9(6). 1-6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424843.

The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native: What they do differently because of technology,and how they do it

• communicating differently: email, chat, IM
• sharing differently: blogs, webcams, camera phones
• buying and selling differently: eBay, schoolwork
• exchanging differently: music, movies, humor
• creating differently: sites, avatars, mods
• meeting differently: 3D chat rooms, dating
• collecting differently: mp3, censor data, video
• coordinating differently: projects, workgroups, MMORPGs
• evaluating differently: Reputation systems–Epinions, Amazon, Slashdot
• gaming differently: “versus,” small & large groups
• learning differently: about stuff that interests them
• searching differently: info, connections, people
• analyzing differently: SETI, drug molecules
• reporting differently: Moblogs, digital photos
• programming differently: Open systems, mods, search
• socializing differently: Learning social behavior, influence
• evolving differently: Peripheral, emergent behaviors
• growing up differently: Exploring, transgressing

Marshall McLuhan: "The Medium is the Message" in "Understanding Media and the Extensions of Man" (1964)--> how data is transferred changes the system of beliefs in society.

• McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Signet.

We need to update the way we offer information in order to keep up in the virtual research and information communities.

ePortfolio with Michelle Simmons

Michelle Holschuh Simmons is one of my most favorite professors in the program. If you're one of the students in my 203 section, or if you haven't had the pleasure to take one of her courses yet, read on to find out why.

Michelle teaches LIBR210 Reference and Information Services, LIBR228 Advanced Resources and Services, LIBR287 Information Literacy, and is one of SLIS' many fine ePort advisors for LIBR289 Advanced Topics in Library and Information Science headed by Dr. Linda Main. Out of class, you can find her doling out advise as an active academic advisor when she's not serving on SLIS' Curriculum Committee and on top of all of that, she also happens to be a mom to 4 young boys (the youngest a set of twins)! As busy as she is, she is one of the most approachable people in the program. If you're following the reviews on the SJSU MLIS Yahoo Group board and database or even the numerous Facebook groups online you'll see I'm not the only one who really enjoys her classes.  

Last night, Michelle hosted a collaborate session as a sort of generalized overview of the ePortfolio process. She does this at least once a year and invites all of her academic advisees, her students from all classes and encourages us to kindly invite other interested students as well. At the invitation of my own peer mentor from last year, Stacey Nordlund, I attended last year but remember feeling a little more overwhelmed than excited about our culminating experience here at SLIS. This year, I'm a year older, wiser and having heard a little more about ePort from the professors and students in between then and now, I left the session feeling excited to start organizing my competencies!

So again, in case you missed this recording and I missed inviting you to the session, I'm re-posting the link here to share as a sort of home base to add in to the rest of my treasure trove of treasures I'm taking away from my school experience.

Enjoy!

Other useful links*:


SJSU SLIS D2L ePortfolio Tutorials
This area contains Web page tutorials taking you through the various tasks associated with building, maintaining, and sharing an ePortfolio in D2L.

289 ePortfolio Handbook
The goal of the e-Portfolio is to provide a program-based assessment to ensure that each student demonstrates mastery of all student learning outcomes (core competencies) for the degree before graduation. For a list of the core competencies, see: Core Compentencies. Students selecting the e-Portfolio option as opposed to the thesis option should register for LIBR 289: Advanced Topics in Library and Information Science. LIBR 289 is a 3-unit formal graduate course; students should thus expect to devote a minimum of 135 hours to developing and refining their e-Portfolios. The three credits for this course count toward the total of 42 (or 43) units required for the MLIS degree. Successful completion of the course will result in a Credit grade being given for LIBR 289.


*Links and text cut directly from SLISweb. 

Researching Digital Literacy

            Information Literacy as a term by itself has changed over the years as society is becoming more technologically advanced.  With information being so readily available via the internet and social media channels, instructors, librarians and other information professionals are finding the need to educate our students and youth with the proper tools and skills they’ll need to be savvy fact-finding researchers. How are we as information professionals using digital initiatives and emerging technology to teach information literacy to our students and younger generations? Are we keeping up with the needs of our more tech-conscious generation by exploring new methodologies and pedagogies brought to us by the sweeping tide of technology? 

            In researching what it means to teach information literacy to the tech-savvy youth of our generation, I came up on so many really interesting articles, which I'll list below for you to check out at your own leisure, but one of the most interesting discoveries this week was my discovery of Doug Belshaw's work on Digital Literacy.  

Doug Belshaw's 8 Elements of Digital Literacies

Two years ago, Doug published a post The 8 C's of Digital Literacy where he lists the 8 C's as "elements" of digital literacy. I am reproducing these below.

• Cultural [Cu]
• Cognitive [Cg]
• Constructive [Cn]
• Communication [Co]
• Confidence [Cf]
• Creative [Cr]
• Critical [Ct]
• Civic [Ci]

The Image below links to a slideshare where he shares his ideas (which he admits were born from spontaneous brain waves related to his Thesis brainstorming at the time) and offers up interesting concepts folks in the fields of Information Science can take to build their own curricula in terms of teaching information literacy. 

As I traced responses to Belshaw's ideas back through his readership, one teacher, Kevin McLaughlin, writes back in response to Belshaw's work how influential the "8 C's" were to his attempts towards teaching digital literacy in the primary classroom.

How to Develop Digital Literacies in Yourself and Others from Doug Belshaw

I'm curious now to see how these ideas translate into a primary classroom, especially as my topic is centered on  youth information literacy instruction on a digital scale! I'll be following McLaughlin's blog and hopefully he keeps it updated with progress.