{"id":2105,"date":"2013-05-09T11:57:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T22:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=2105"},"modified":"2014-06-13T14:46:02","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T01:46:02","slug":"the-musings-of-a-digital-native","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=2105","title":{"rendered":"The musings of a digital native…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Reading Nathan and Philippa\u2019s articles on social media and more broadly, the relationship between digital technology and society, I could feel the hairs on my arm prickle with interest. My relationship with digital technology is one that I have reflected upon over and over again; the tension between its affordances, understanding how <\/em>to effectively use it to my advantage, and also the assumption that because I was born after a certain date it is anticipated that I will be bilingual in tech-speak.<\/p>\n

It was whilst completing my dissertation that I really became interested in this area. My research focused on student experience and as part of this \u2013 and as identified by Philippa in her article \u2013 the concept of a digital divide and the terms \u2018digital native\u2019 and \u2018digital immigrant\u2019 were introduced to me.<\/p>\n

Born in the 1980\u2019s, I am considered a \u2018digital native\u2019, however, I must confess I have never felt particularly digitally savvy. In fact whilst completing my studies I became acutely aware \u2013 and ultimately very dependant \u2013 on the affordances of the digital technology available to me and how best I could utilise it to ultimately make myself \u2018smarter Caitlin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Completing my literature review I scoured dozens of online journals from different countries and different cultures. In our world of interconnectivity, we have access to unlimited sources and worldwide discussions at our very fingertips, and in the case of drafting my literature review, was it possible, too much information. Every article I found led to another and in a world so digitally connected, the amount of information available to me continued to grow.<\/p>\n

As I reflected on this, and battled with myself most days to hold off on printing another journal article, I started thinking about my desire to continue searching for articles, but yet also the fact that I printed each article, preferring to read it on paper than on the screen.<\/p>\n

This subsequently became a bone of contention. I wanted to (and was able to) use the digital technology available to research my subject area, however when it came to reading, digesting and using the information I found, I wanted it on paper and to scribble notes and annotate the text by hand.<\/p>\n

The more I thought about this, the more I became interested in my relationship with digital technology and kept revisiting the concept of creating \u2018smarter Caitlin\u2019.<\/p>\n

I began to think about the ways in which digital technology was \u2018amplifying\u2019 my intelligence and started to investigate the idea of learnable intelligence – or as suggested by one theorist, the idea of us being homo sapiens digital. I found it interesting to compare my relationship with digital technology to that of my nine-year-old sister who at a glance appears to be a digital whizz, however I started to wonder; how much does she actually understand in terms of what digital technology can allow you to do and achieve? \u00a0As I thought about it, and questioned her understanding of digital technology, I arrived at the conclusion that whilst technology may never replace our own intuition or judgement, it definitely has the power to both enhance and extend our cognitive skills and abilities \u2013 but crucially – only if we are aware of the way in which to use and utilise it.<\/p>\n

As I write this, I have just become aware that on another tab I have open, a Facebook notification has just reminded me that a friend\u2019s birthday is coming up this week. A fantastic little tool that means I (hopefully) need never miss a birthday again.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I must admit though, I\u2019m not too keen on writing birthday posts. I find it far more satisfying to sit with a pen and card and write a happy birthday greeting, another little contradiction I am only too aware off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are you thoughts on the great digital divide? Share your experiences with us below (or on a postcard!)<\/p>\n

Author: Caitlin O’Connor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Nathan and Philippa’s articles on social media and more broadly, the relationship between digital technology and society, I could feel the hairs on my arm prickle with interest. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category-3"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p83npQ-xX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2105"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3176,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions\/3176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}