The Civic, Social, and Multi Modal Lives of Digital Natives

Deconstructing Digital Natives  Chapter 4:
"More widely, however, there appears to have been little fundamental shift in the acceptance of the idea that human brains are "plastic" and "mutate" in response to technology, thus allowing those who use technology most heavily (still mainly considered to be young people) to process, access, and use information in fundamentally different ways from other generations and non-technology users." (Shakuntala Banaji, p.51).
I found this statement to be particularly interesting to me.  I do believe that the Digital Natives process, access, and use information differently than other generations.  They mentioned in Chapter 4 that the "baby boomers" were introduced to color television as their technology advancement.  The invention of color television is nothing compared to the invention of the World Wide Web.  As I have stated before, my father was part of the "baby boomer" generation and he does well to use his laptop. He refuses to use a cell phone because he doesn't understand the need for technology.  There are many real world examples that I can give you that prove that the younger generations are more capable and willing to use the new technology than our parents and grandparents.

Deconstructing Digital Natives Chapter 5:
"Juvenile crimes have been given considerable media attention, with some critics blaming new media such as violent videos and video games, mobile phones, and the Internet." (Toshie Takahashi, p.69).
This particular statement holds true in many ways.  With the recent attacks in Florida and other attacks around the world, it is no wonder that people are blaming the media.  Our children are being exposed to violence and terror on social media and the Internet.  Then there is the reality of cyber bullying causing kids to commit suicide or take a gun to school to kill the bullies.  How do we stop these things from happening? How can we protect our children from the violence and the crime?

Deconstructing Digital Natives Chapter 6:
"According to Skehan (1998), for long-term language learning success, we need to ensure a balanced focus between the pedagogical goals of fluency, accuracy, and complexity in the long-term learning of the grammatical system." (Mike Levy, Rowan Michael, p.86).
I agree with this statement one hundred percent.  You can not fully learn a language without fluency, accuracy, and complexity.  The problem with our children today is that they are used to speaking in "texting language."  They abbreviate their words and come up with phrases and words that we don't really understand.  When they get into the classroom, the students tend to write using the abbreviated text instead of writing out the full word.  They will also write in chunks instead of writing in complete sentences because they are used to texting all of the time.  We have to teach them that the proper goals for fluency, accuracy, and complexity when it comes to language.  They should be using more complex words (the words that I like to call "big girl words").  They should be able to speak fluently and accurately.  That is the only problem with texting and messaging; it causes our children to learn short hand instead of speaking and writing using the appropriate methods.


Meme:

One of my all-time favorite memes involves Batman slapping Robin.  I chose to create my meme using the quote from Chapter 6.  Teens use entirely too much text lingo instead of speaking properly.