Week 7 -- The Digital Politician

It is interesting how in, Grown Up Digital, Trapscott explains how so many young people hardly vote. “The Net Generation does not put much trust in politicians and political institutions – not because they’re uninterested, but rather because political systems have failed to engage them in a manner that fits their digital and ethical up bringing”

This is exactly how I am as a voter. Since I live in the bush I do not have the time or money to go places to support candidates at rallies or help with their campaign. But I am more motivated to help a candidate if I can join an online group or rally. The more the candidates campaign utilizes online, digital tools, the more motivated I am to participate in the political process.

A good article put out by USNews talks about the ”5 ways new media are changing politics”. The article talks about how the new media is impacting the events of the world. For example through twitter the Red Cross raised $8 million. The 5 ways that are mentioned are:

1.     News you can choose

2.     Share this.

3.     Like it.

4.     Connect with others

5.     Donate Now

I also like how Tapscott mentions what happens after a candidate gets elected. In the old system “we vote, they rule.” In this system, it was our duty to elect the perfect candidate. If we can do that, then we can trust that the candidate has our interests in mind when he/she governors. Net Gens have caused a change in the system. No longer do we step out of the political process after a candidate is elected. Net Gens want to “contribute ideas to the decision making process” They fell like they need to continue to help and support the candidate after being elected.

Obama has done a good job of keeping everyone involved. A Huffington Post article, Obama and the Reinvention of Democracy, talks about what Obama has done to keep people included in government. “He's mobilizing the millions of young people who supported his presidential campaign to help him as he prepares to govern a troubled country.” What neat is how Obama sent out emails to all his campaign supporters asking for their continued support.

Sources:

Cary, M. K. (2010, February 3). 5 Ways New Media Are Changing Politics. US News. Retrieved June 30, 2014, from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/slideshows/5-ways-new-media-are-changing-politics

Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Tapscott, D. (2008, December 8). Obama and the Reinvention of Democracy. The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 30, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-tapscott/obama-and-the-reinvention_b_148772.html

Week 6 - The Net-Generation Consumer

After reading Tapscotts chapter “The Net Generation as Consumers” I thought that this is exactly how I am as a consumer. Before I buy any product I go online and research the product. I like to read reviews to find out whether or not the product I intend to purchase is worth purchasing.

Horizon Research Publishing created a great article called “Importance of Online Product Reviews from a Consumer's Perspective” They created a survey that asked various questions about product reviews, how important reviews are and where they find these reviews. They found that 74% found online reviews to be important to vary important and 85% read reviews often before purchasing online. “The more interesting and surprising finding was that a lot of customers compare positive and negative reviews with each other.” That is exactly how I am when it comes to reviews. I am always interested in why the product was negatively reviewed and why it was positively reviewed. I also look at the ratio between positive and negative reviews. More negative reviews than positive then might influence my decision to not purchase a product.

I also like when companies listen to the consumers. “Leading companies are using all kinds of innovative approaches to get feedback.” When companies read reviews of their products they should make changes to those product so that they can better support the consumer. For example, Apple just released an update to their ereader app “iBooks” As soon as the app was released people started writing negative reviews saying that they did not like they new design. “we don’t put books on aluminum shelves — well, we usually don’t”  For Apple’s product, iBooks, to be successful I hope that Apple reads the reviews and makes changes to the app in order to meet the concerns of the net-gen consumers.

Sources

Lackermair, G., Kailer, D., & Kanmaz, K. (2013, January 1). Importance of Online Product Reviews from a Consumer's Perspective. . Retrieved June 23, 2014, from http://www.hrpub.org/download/201307/aeb.2013.010101.pdf

Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Snelgrove, N. (2013, November 28). Why I Still Prefer Kindle Over iBooks. iPhoneAppStorm RSS. Retrieved June 23, 2014, from http://iphone.appstorm.net/general/opinion-general/why-i-still-prefer-kindle-over-ibooks/

Week 5 - The Net Generation Workforce

            It is interesting reading in Born Digital how there seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to the net gen and the workforce.  These two ideas are opposites of each other. The first thought is that employers are reluctant or just plain refuse to embrace the net generation. The second thought is that employers taking the steps necessary to make the net generation part of their workforce.

            There are companies that do not know or are not ready to deal with the net generation. “They can refuse to adapt to the Net Gen, stick to their old hierarchies, and reinforce the generational firewall that separates the managers from the newly hired minions.” I have seen this a lot in the school I teach at. Our school has a very intense Internet blocker. It not only blocks what the students have access to it also blocks what the teachers have access to. The teachers and students share the same blocks. For a long while my school banned access to Facebook, wordpress and other sites. As Trapscott says “The Net Gen wants to take a digital break; the boomer employers shut them down.” So after much argument amongst the teachers my school gave in and partially unblocked these sites. Unfortunately they are only unblocked from 4:30pm to 8:00am; even on weekends!

            What’s more is that there are companies that embrace the digital generation. Most of these companies have not yet fully incorporated the digital generation. They are in the process of doing so. The company Cognizant created an amazing document for all companies, “Preparing for the Next-Gen Worker: Is Your Organization Ready?” This talks about the fact that the net gens are coming and that it is important for organizations to be ready for them. It “explores eight questions you should be asking regarding your organization’s readiness for next-generation workers:

1.     What will make or break our business success over the next decade?

2.     Have we built an organizational capacity for collaboration?

3.     Are we leveraging technology to improve performance?

4.     Are we able to tap the best available talent?

5.     What does it mean to work in our organization?

6.     What do our “managers” do?

7.     Are we basing our decision-making on the best possible input?

8.     Is our organization ready for the future?”

            Another great resource for companies and the workforce is the book, The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today This book is about what the workforce of 2020 will look like and what companies need to prepare for so they are ready for it. The authors wrote the book because they saw that many companies keep viewing the future as a “linear progression from past years” and this is not what the future of business is going to look like.

Sources:

Erickson, T., Livingston, M., Livingston, J., & Clark, S. (n.d.). Preparing for the Next-Gen Worker: Is Your Organization Ready?. cognizant.com. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from http://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/preparing-for-the-next-gen-worker-is-your-organization-ready

Meister, J. C., & Willyerd, K. (2010). The 2020 workplace: how innovative companies attract, develop, and keep tomorrow's employees today. New York: Harper Business.

Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Week 4 - The Digital Innovator

It is interesting to read in John Palfrey and Urs Gasser's book Born Digital how many of the digital entrepreneurs started website business as destructive but then came back as positive and revolutionary. What's more is that there are other digital entrepreneurs who create their digital business based off of the experiences of the ones who had the initial idea in the first place.

I remember back when Napster first came out. It was nice being able to download any song at any time. Now I understand the problems Napster had. First the music industry saw the destructiveness of downloading music before they saw the potential. They saw that downloading music was people getting music without paying for it. They did everything they could to fight Napster. In the end, the challenges Napster faced allowed other music downloading sites to rise up and become successful. Like iTunes for example.

In addition to what digital entrepreneurs are doing it is interesting to see what companies are doing in response to the increasing group of digital natives. In the beginning companies did not see the potential of Embracing the digital native. After a while they realized they could increase the market place for their business by going online and reaching out to the digital world. "businesses have gone from ignoring informal groups of Digital Natives getting together online to obsessing about ways to monetize their enthusiasm" (Palfrey)

It is amazing how some companies are starting to take advantage of the digital environment. Global WorkPlace Innovation and The Johnston Automotive Group contacted a study of digital natives. There goal was to "understand the relationship between the digital natives and technology in order to understand how the workplace may need to change to accommodate them."(Johnson Controls) They learned that in the workplace they will need:

1. Greater access to technology
2. Cloud computing
3. Internal knowledge management to support collaboration.
4. A more comfortable working environment
5. Sustainable working environment.

Yet there are still people in the non digital generation that are still reluctant to embrace the digital world. For example the band AC/DC had a long time hold out before they released their music on ITunes. They had said for the longest time that "their music will never be available for download" (techdirt)


Sources:

AC/DC Says Their Songs Will Never Be Available For Download; Rest Of Internet Laughs |   Techdirt. (n.d.).Techdirt.. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110508/23273614200/acdc-says-their-songs-will-never-be-available-download-rest-internet-laughs.shtml


Digital Natives | Johnson Controls Inc.. (n.d.). Digital Natives | Johnson Controls Inc.. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/content/us/en/products/globalworkplacesolutions/workplacenow_e-zine/digital_natives.html

Palfrey, John and Gasser, Urs. (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. [On-line] Retrieved June 1, 2014 from: http://site.ebrary.com/id/10392430?ppg=8

Week Three

I thought that is was interesting how, in Grown Up Digital, Trapscott talks about how the adolescent brain changes. I have a lot of experience teaching in areas where “it you don ‘tuse it you lose it” has a lot of meaning. This is anything from native languages, school subjects, to cultural skills.

I teach in Togiak, AK. The school population is about 97% Alaska Native. Yupik is the native language spoken in the village. But...many of the native children speak very little or can not speak Yupik at all. This was a shock to me when I started teaching in Togiak five years ago. I thought that English was going to be the hard language for them not their Native language! English has swept through the villages with a force. 

As Trapscott says “the brain starts pruning, reducing connections among brain cells” This means that as the students heard more more English and less Yupik there brains started to reduce the connections associated with Yupik and created more for English.

The article, “Bilingual Babes: Teach Your Child A Second Language” talks about how parents can use the “one person, one language” approach to teach their children two languages. Most families in Togiak have someone at home that is fluent in Yupik. So if that person only used Yupik to speak then the children will learn Yupik so they can communicate with that person.

Also my school has a very low attendance rate. So there are many students that don't come to school for weeks and may even drop out for the rest of the year. These same students tend come back to school the following year. There skill level in my math classes is a lot lower than the rest of the class. This is due the fact that when they were dropped out (3/4 of the school year) they were not using or studying math so their brain started to lose their connections to their math knowledge...”use it or lose it”

The best way to prevent the loss of learning is to have the students present in school at all times. But if they are going to be absent then it is up to the parent to help their child continue their learning so that can be successful. it should be easy for the parents, there are many resources online for learning. Math.com has many resources for math. http://www.math.com/parents/homeschool.html

Sources:

Cohen, I. (n.d.). Bilingual Babes: Teach Your Child A Second Language. Parents Magazine. Retrieved June 2, 2014, from http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/language/teaching-second-language/?page=1

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown Up Digital : How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

Teaching Math At Home - Parents as Math Teachers. (2005). Math.com Homeschooling. Retrieved June 2, 2014, from http://www.math.com/parents/homeschool.html

Week Two

            Wow…where to begin. Chapter 3 of Tapscott’s book, Grown up Digital, has a lot of information. I could almost write 8 different blogs on the 8 different norms talked in the chapter, but I can’t. So Ill pick two and talk about them; scrutiny and customization.

Scrutiny:

            In my geometry class my students are constantly scrutinizing everything that happens in class. And they should. It is part of the style of the class. In several of the chapters, statements are made and it is the student’s job to determine if the statement is always true, sometimes true or always false. An example of one of the statement was, “a square is a rectangle”. To determine the validity of the statement I notice some students went online and looked up the definitions for square and rectangle. They then determined that the statement is always true.

            In addition, net gens are good shoppers, “When they go shopping, almost two-thirds of Net Geners tell us, they search for information about products that interest them before they buy.” So in my class I teach my students about unit prices and their importance. “Comparing the unit price of similar products will insure that you get the best deal available.” (Montaldo)

Customization:

            This is one of the most important characteristics of the net generation. Customization gives people the feeling that what they have customized is their own. Whenever we do a project in class I allow my student to modify the project as much as possible. This gives more meaning to the projects.

            There is a really good article in Education Week, “Schools Use Digital Tools to Customize Education.” This article talks about the importance of giving students customization when it comes to their education. Student should be given a personalized path in their education. They should be able to choose what class they take. But we need to remember “it’s not about giving students what they want, it’s about a recommended learning path just for them.”  (Davis)

Sources:

Davis, M. (2011, March 14). Schools Use Digital Tools to Customize Education. Education Week, 30, 10-11.

Montaldo, D. (n.d.). Unit Pricing - The Real Price. About.com Coupons/Bargains. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://couponing.about.com/cs/aboutcouponing/a/unitpricing.htm

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown Up Digital : How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

Week One

I like how the Tapscott talks about how the technology is changing more that just the environment the students are in and how the use it. “They seem to behave, and even to be different” I see this a lot in the students that I teach. I have noticed that whenever I have my students take notes (on their computer) they tend to zone out when they finish copying the current PowerPoint slide being projected. They keep switching from their notes to a video game, to a video or to a website. When I call them on this, they are confused about why I am not happy them. In their mind they already took the notes and are just keeping them self busy until the next slide in the PowerPoint is displayed.(Tapscott) 

According to the article “Does PowerPoint help or hinder learning?” from the Faculty Focus website, PowerPoint has many good and bad uses. It can improve teachers in their teaching. But since people’s attention span these days is about 8 percent teachers need to be sure that their lessons are strong enough to keep their students attention. “Like so many instructional practices, PowerPoint is not inherently good or bad. It’s all about how we use it.”(Weimer)

There is a good article by the NY Times that continues the point about technology changing the way student behave, “Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say” In the article studies where conducted that found many teachers believed, the attention span among student is affected by their use of digital technology. Some teachers were even seeing technology as a distraction from the learning environment. I believe in the same counterpoint that Kristen Purcell brings up in the article “the education system must adjust to better accommodate the way students learn, a point that some teachers brought up in focus groups themselves.” (Richtel)

Overall I see that as the technology world grows and the net-generation starts having kids the environment they live in needs to change to accommodate to their new digital mind.  

Sources:

Richtel, M. (2012, November 1). Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say. NY Times.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown Up Digital : How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.

Weimer, M. (2012, August 1). Does PowerPoint Help or Hinder Learning?. Retrieved May 18, 2014, from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/does-powerpoint-help-or-hinder-learning/