Technology Literacy and the MySpace Generation
Susan McLester
from Technology & Learning
They're not asking permission.
These are responses from my 15-year-old daughter, Hannah, and her friends, who are all freshmen at Northern California's Berkeley High School, regarding the safety of kids using MySpace. On a typical day after school, you'll find Hannah in her bedroom, iPod charging on the desk, headphones in ears, cell phone in one hand, paperback book in the other, television tuned to a Gilmore Girls rerun, and computer with display divided among iTunes, YouTube, a Pride and Prejudice DVD, and, of course, MySpace, which she constantly checks for messages from friends.
This portrait of a digital native is particular to the year 2007. It is not what we would have seen 10 years ago, and it's definitely not likely to resemble what we'll be seeing a decade down the line. So when we, as adults, bandy about the concept of technology literacy, inherent within that is the knowledge that technology and the digital native are constantly evolving.
Our challenge as educators, parents, and community members? How do we empower and protect our students in an environment that increasingly excludes us?
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