Leads: John Palfrey, Urs Gasser
With over a million young people “born digital,” now is the time to examine the emerging trends of how these digital natives construct identity, learn, create, and socialize in an ever-changing “always on” landscape. How do we give digital natives the tools (in terms of know-how, technology, social norms, or other means) to navigate safely in the emerging digital social space? How can copyright holders work with digital creators to understand their needs and practices in a way that doesn’t stifle their creativity? As a global society, can we come to understand what’s happening with a generation online, to embrace a digital present, and to shape, in constructive ways, a more digital future?
Working papers on Digital Divide, the Spread of the Internet and Political Institutions
What does it mean to be a Digital Native?
- Digital Identity: Identity was something I could control… can I control my Digital Identity? Or, on the contrary: online identity can be shaped, created absolutely the way I want it to be
- Multitasking: Distraction or multitasking?
- Digital Media: Flickr, Google Print, YouTube…
- Digital Creativity: Consumers in the past… what now? Quite a switch. Can we relate it with… Democracy?
Technologies that enable/empower the digital native
- RSS feeds, of course, that link together (free) web 2.0 applications.
- Lightweight collaboration: Wikipedia?
- New contexts, new meanings
- Tagging
- International scope: shrinking the world
- Example: Couchsurfing
Issues:
- Security
- Privacy: unintended audience; how to remove information about me on the Internet, information that can be massively processed (i.e. image recognition); identity theft, erosion
- Intellectual property: copyright, trademark
- Credibility: specially relevant in the academic business
- Information overload: we move from an environment of high quality information — because it is produced professionally — towards an amateur created information environment. Related: quality mechanics, reputation, etc. How many RSS feed subscriptions or e-mails a day can you tolerate?
Opportunities
- Media literacy skills
- expression/identity
- empowering creators
- information sharing
- maintaining connections
- semiotic democracy
- access to information
My reflections
- Wealth of Networks and peer production
- Wikinomics
- Prosuming
- Connectivism
- It’s the knowledge economy, stupid
- Speaking in tongues
- e-Awareness
- How are enterprises and employer/employee relationships going to change?
- What’s the role of Education (specially Higher Education) in the XXIst century?
- How is values transmission going to be affedted?
- The end of Democracy (vs. smartmobs and goal focused cyberactivism)?
Readings
Boyd, D. (2006). “Facebook’s ’Privacy Trainwreck’: Exposure, Invasion, and Drama”. In Apophenia Blog, September 8. Retrieved July 13, 2007 from http://www.danah.org/papers/FacebookAndPrivacy.html
Green, H. (2007). Their Space. Education for a Digital Generation. London: Demos. Retrieved July 13, 2007 from http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Their%20space%20-%20web.pdf
Lenhart, A. & Madden, M. (2005). Teen Content Creators and Consumers. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved July 13, 2007 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Content_Creation.pdf
Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2007). Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing. RWP07-022. Cambridge: Harvard University. Retrieved July 13, 2007 from http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP07-022/$File/rwp_07_022_mayer-schoenberger.pdf
Turkle, S. (0). “Always-on/Always-on-you: The Thetered Self”. In Katz, J. (Ed.), Handbook of Mobile Communications and Social Change. [forthcoming]. Cambridge: MIT Press.
More info
- UNESCO Seminar on the Web2.0 and e-Learning. John Palfrey: Born Digital, post in this blog.
- Nativos Digitales, a post of mine in another blog.
- OII Day 1, by Alla Zollers
- Digital Natives – OII SDP notes, by Cuihua Shen
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