Living in the Information Age

 

 

Last week, at a conference I attended one workshop of Darren in which he discussed the Digital Ethics. We watched this video (below). It created a stir among the participants. I heard expressions like ‘creepy’, ‘dangerous’, ‘oh wow’. There was a sense of ‘insecurity’ from the teachers in the room about social media.

 

 

When discussed, most people expressed unease in knowing their students via social media and the kind of complicated situations it can lead to.

My point of view on this topic are in line with the thoughts I touched upon in course 1 and that is about considering technology as a wonderful tool and means of fulfilling our thirst to discover, create, share and celebrate ‘knowledge’. The key principle to observe is to consider technology and cyber world as an extension of our real selves and to come forward in our online interactions similar to the real life. What is unacceptable in our daily life stays unacceptable in virtual life. If we approach the information age with this mindset I see only positive outcomes and it stands true for students as much as it is for teachers.

I have been an avid user of technology hence did not classify myself as a ‘digital immigrant’ even though I am not ‘technically’ from the age of ‘digital natives’ or maybe I totally missed the point of Marc Prensky. I am more inclined to conform to the conclusion of C. Brown & L. Czerniewicz in their research on the topic of digital natives and immigrants where they write ‘It is crucial that we as educators, as academics and as educational technologists reject deterministic and exclusionary labels and actively change this discourse’. Another conclusion by Gerald Haigh on this study that I find interesting states ‘Use of technology varies with age, but it does so predictably, over the whole age span. And secondly, although younger people are more likely to be positive about technology, there is evidence that a good attitude to technology, at any age, correlates with good study habits.’.

 I reluctantly joined Facebook in 2008 but since then have developed my use of social media in line with my real life and it has been a wonderful experience enriching my knowledge and life. My current digital foot print, thought I am not convinced of it’s accuracy (I believe it is more than that) came out to be:

but that is just based on the questions this digital footprint calculator asks. It may be right 😉 in which case I have to do more creative writing in my blog posts 🙂