Month: January 2022

I found that the article this week really highlighted the course goal: recognizing that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone. What made me go “Wow” was reading how Prensky distinguished those who were proficient in technology vs those who were not. I have never thought of separating older people as digital immigrants and younger people as digital natives and I’m glad this dichotomy is no longer applicable-as argued by the authors. Moreover, as my background is in sociology, I could not help but notice the somewhat ageist attitudes that surround Prensky’s line of thought. The authors recognize this as well and mention that Prensky is suggesting that older learners are handicapped. The authors argue that skills and struggles regarding technology will vary regardless of age. It is ironic how Prensky argues that older folks were socialized differently than younger ones in relation to technical proficiency, since the nature of how Prensky was socialized may have given him ageist conscious or unconscious biases. I wonder if Prensky would agree with the author’s visitors and residents continuum typology.

What made me go “wow” after reading the article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age” was the ways in which the author highlighted the need to shift traditional learning theories to encompass the new ways we learn through technology. In a digital age, personalized learning can no longer be acquired through experience, but through learning about other people’s experiences. Constructivism, a traditional learning theory, states that a learner can acquire knowledge through tasks, however, the new challenge in a technological world is to connect with others to gain knowledge. Therefore, connectivism is the key learning theory in a digital age as its underlying principle surrounds a network of people and their sharing of knowledge, sources, and opinions. After I read this article, I wondered about how I could relate this to my own experience of networked learning, and I immediately thought of Tik Tok. The social media app has taught me many things, including how the internet is not an equal space for everyone. For example, I have learned about the importance of closed captions on Tik Tok for those in the deaf community, and how it can make them feel excluded if captions are not enabled. Can you think of a learning experience that came as a result of online connection?

What stood out to me in the article “Networked Privacy” was the way in which the author interpreted how we should analyze and address privacy concerns. At the end of the article, the author emphasized that we must not center or focus on the individual, but rather develop models that center networks of people as the unit of analysis. This made me go “wow” as I have previously thought about surveillance technologies and algorithms solely on an individual basis. The fact that these technologies can draw upon our social network makes this privacy concern even more alarming. Moreover, in the article “What is a Personal Learning network”, the author described how jobs and education can be affected by long-term social distancing. This made me wonder about the physical and mental concerns of a population with long-term social distancing. I also wonder if there are any studies on this yet?