So where are we going to be in 10 years time when it comes to technology? well hopefully this might provide a bit of an insight!
Rachel is a bright student who has been brought up around technology all her life. When she wakes up on a morning she wakes to the sound of her digital TV which has been set to switch on whenever she needs waking up. She leaves the TV on as she jumps into her state of the art shower with TV screens which plays the programme which is being shown on her TV in her bedroom. The digital shower also has a digital touthbrush so that Rachel can brsuh her teeth as she washes. The toothbruch and shower are set to the temperature and speed that Rachel likes.
She jumps out and gets ready and moves into the kitchen where her digital oven is set to go on at 8 30 am exactly so it is pre - heated for the bacon which Rachel loves to start the morning with. She then heads out on her motor scooter which get her to her only lecture of the day in 5 minutes flat. That may be the only face-to-face lecture she has all day as it is her monthly meet up with her tutor. Rachel will spen the rest of the day in the libary or she may even go home if she feels like it. You see for Rachel she can listen to all her lectures online and then if she has any queries there is a given time when her lecturer will be online, like an academic msn scenario, if she wishes to ask any questions.
After her work is done for the day she relaxes on her bed and shouts out the word "music" and the music set to Rachels exact taste, booms through the room. Her phone then rings to the sound of the latest number 1 track. Its her friend Caroline on the other end of the phone asking what she should where when they go out tonight. Not only that but the video call allows Rachel to see Caroline's exact outfit choices. Once she has helped Caroline decide she realises she needs to quickly ask her tutor something. Knowing that her tutor will only be online for another 5 minutes she decides to ask them over her phone, its much quicker these days!
As Rachel meets her friends at the bar they know and love she puts her thumb print into the pad on the door frame and the door opens letting her in straight away. No iding as they have her date of birth and photo already recorded. This also means that they know she has arrived and have her first drink ready for her when she gets to the bar. Her favourite drink will have also been stored in the database. She then has a fantastic night out entering tunes into the digital DJ and having drinks ready for her at the touch of a pad. After a tiring day she arrives home and all she needs to do is slip into bed. Her alarm is preset and her make up doesnt even need to be taken off as it evaporates after a certain amount of time, genious!
Monday, 14 April 2008
Blog d) Describe the daily frustrations of a fictional neo-luddite at university now in the UK.
This follows on from what I was saying about my friend from school although she didnt choose to go against technology, she just didnt know any different.
Brenda was from a small hamlet in the North Yorkshire Moors which consisted of only 10 homes although she lived in a farmhouse 2 miles away, therefore it was pretty disurted. She never needed a mobile phone but she had one for emergencies and only ever got the bus to school which took her 2 hours there and 2 hours back evryday. When Brenda applied for university she was excited at the prospect of getting out of the tiny hamlet she lived in and meeting more than the 20 people she'd seen evryday for the first 18 years of her life.
When Brenda began university it was more difficult than she ever would have imagined. She first walked into her new room to find a socket , she didnt know what it was. She asked the man who helped her move in and he told her it was and internet socket which this cable (which he held in front of her)connected from the socket to the laptop. The thing is, Brenda didnt have a laptop, when she ever had to do work she completed it at school as her family couldnt get internet where she lived. She then walked into the living room to find a girl sitting there, texting at a notorious speed on her mobile. The only time Brenda had ever text anyone was when she told her mum what time she was going to be in when she went out after her exam results.
This would be Brenda's average day:
She was awoken by her clock alarm, and old brass thing which her mum had given her for university. She got up had a shower, packed her bag and made herself some porridge on the hob in the kitchen. Then she left for lectures. Little did she know but she'd realsie later she'd left her mobile phone in her room, an easy mistake to make when it barely gets used. But it is frustrating when she meets some nice girls later and when they decide to swap numbers she has to write theres on a piece of paper and obviously she doesnt know hers. It then got more frustrating when they asked her instead whether she had "facebook". Brenda hadnt heard of this before but after several explanations later from her new found friends she began to understand and agreed to join up on her brand new laptop when she got back home. In her head she couldnt help but say to herself "where the hell am I going to start with that?!". They then invited her out that night to try the delights of the student union. When she arrived she couldnt believe her eyes, crowds of people queing up to get into one place. The only time Brenda had really been out was after she got her exam results and then she was back home at 11. As she walked in she found herself huddled round the bar being asked what she wanted to drink, should she really drink?why not, she says to herself. By the end of the night Brenda has found herself dancing to the type of music she has never even heard of, R'n'B she heard her friend call it.
Well after and eventful day of learning about all the latest technology she had been missing out on, she flicks the switch on her alarm clock ready for the next day. She then hear a funny buzzing sound coming from her side draw. She looks, its her mobile phone which she had totally forgotton about even after the girls had mentioned it. She opens up her first ever text message, its from one of her new friends saying "I know ul probs nt get this 4 a wk bt hope u gt home safe hun, cya soon xxx".
Brenda was from a small hamlet in the North Yorkshire Moors which consisted of only 10 homes although she lived in a farmhouse 2 miles away, therefore it was pretty disurted. She never needed a mobile phone but she had one for emergencies and only ever got the bus to school which took her 2 hours there and 2 hours back evryday. When Brenda applied for university she was excited at the prospect of getting out of the tiny hamlet she lived in and meeting more than the 20 people she'd seen evryday for the first 18 years of her life.
When Brenda began university it was more difficult than she ever would have imagined. She first walked into her new room to find a socket , she didnt know what it was. She asked the man who helped her move in and he told her it was and internet socket which this cable (which he held in front of her)connected from the socket to the laptop. The thing is, Brenda didnt have a laptop, when she ever had to do work she completed it at school as her family couldnt get internet where she lived. She then walked into the living room to find a girl sitting there, texting at a notorious speed on her mobile. The only time Brenda had ever text anyone was when she told her mum what time she was going to be in when she went out after her exam results.
This would be Brenda's average day:
She was awoken by her clock alarm, and old brass thing which her mum had given her for university. She got up had a shower, packed her bag and made herself some porridge on the hob in the kitchen. Then she left for lectures. Little did she know but she'd realsie later she'd left her mobile phone in her room, an easy mistake to make when it barely gets used. But it is frustrating when she meets some nice girls later and when they decide to swap numbers she has to write theres on a piece of paper and obviously she doesnt know hers. It then got more frustrating when they asked her instead whether she had "facebook". Brenda hadnt heard of this before but after several explanations later from her new found friends she began to understand and agreed to join up on her brand new laptop when she got back home. In her head she couldnt help but say to herself "where the hell am I going to start with that?!". They then invited her out that night to try the delights of the student union. When she arrived she couldnt believe her eyes, crowds of people queing up to get into one place. The only time Brenda had really been out was after she got her exam results and then she was back home at 11. As she walked in she found herself huddled round the bar being asked what she wanted to drink, should she really drink?why not, she says to herself. By the end of the night Brenda has found herself dancing to the type of music she has never even heard of, R'n'B she heard her friend call it.
Well after and eventful day of learning about all the latest technology she had been missing out on, she flicks the switch on her alarm clock ready for the next day. She then hear a funny buzzing sound coming from her side draw. She looks, its her mobile phone which she had totally forgotton about even after the girls had mentioned it. She opens up her first ever text message, its from one of her new friends saying "I know ul probs nt get this 4 a wk bt hope u gt home safe hun, cya soon xxx".
Blog c) A person known to you (could be you, but you don't need to admit it!) who most threatens the notion of native/immigrant in digital culture.
Yes I have to admit that I do personally threaten the notion of native/immigrant in this digital culture. I am classed initially as a digital native as I go about my day with my internet constantly on. I check facebook several times a day and also browse celebrity gossip sites daily. I upload pictures and send emails more often than not. I text continuously, especially at university. For example, i get 500 free texts a month and can easily go over that. I watch a good couple of hours of TV a night and I always set my phone to wake me up on a morning. These are all common features of any person my age and at university and it is us who is generally seen as the digital native that digital immigrants constantly talk about. But I think I buck the trend as I can also be completely technologically illiterate.
It took me until last year to get my first ipod and evn then i got one of the smallest ones you could get and i think iv only got about 1000 songs on there, which i know for a fact compared to may other friends is nothing. Even when I first got my ipod I had to ask my little sister (3 years younger than me) to help set it up for me and teach me how to download songs. She had previously had an ipod for 2 years. Not only this, but even just the other day I needed to do something on Mircosoft Excel. I did IT GCSE but since then I dont think I have ever had to use Microsoft Excel. Therefore when I needed to the other day I had no clue where to even start. I had to ask my friend to do it for me, even when she showed me I was still unsure. So in this day and age is it weird for me to be like this yet still be the age I am? of do the factors in the first paragraph mean I couldnt possibly be a digital immigrant?
It took me until last year to get my first ipod and evn then i got one of the smallest ones you could get and i think iv only got about 1000 songs on there, which i know for a fact compared to may other friends is nothing. Even when I first got my ipod I had to ask my little sister (3 years younger than me) to help set it up for me and teach me how to download songs. She had previously had an ipod for 2 years. Not only this, but even just the other day I needed to do something on Mircosoft Excel. I did IT GCSE but since then I dont think I have ever had to use Microsoft Excel. Therefore when I needed to the other day I had no clue where to even start. I had to ask my friend to do it for me, even when she showed me I was still unsure. So in this day and age is it weird for me to be like this yet still be the age I am? of do the factors in the first paragraph mean I couldnt possibly be a digital immigrant?
Blog b) The youngest digital immigrant you know
Although, according to Prensky the general age of an immigrant is over 25 (although he states that there isnt really an age limit) I know someone, although not so much anymore, who is my age and could be classed as a digital immigrant. When I was still at school I was quite friendly with this girl who lived basically in the countryside. Her parents owned a very traditional farm and were very much brought up traditionally and without any technology which would be invented etc. She only ever got a mobile phone in her last year of school as her parents decided she needed one as she was beginning to go out drinking. Her mum didnt have a mobile but her dad did for business reasons. They had no computer as her dad did all the farm stuff over the one landline telephone they had in the house.
When she came to my school (she moved from a school nearer her for a better education in lower sixth) she was none the wiser to why we all had mobile phones, watched TV every night and constantly sat on MSN talking about anything and everything. She didnt really get it. But to be honest I didnt really blame her because she wasnt brought up around it. She was brought up the same way as her parents, therefore ignorant of any technological advances. This sounds like a child in the 60's but in fact this was after the millenium. So she definately classes as the youngest digital immigrant I know. She has now gone to university and has facebook so she probably has now caught up with what she lacked before, but until last year this was completely different. I couldnt think of anyone I knew now but I thought that she was a very good example even if it is a year or two out of date!
When she came to my school (she moved from a school nearer her for a better education in lower sixth) she was none the wiser to why we all had mobile phones, watched TV every night and constantly sat on MSN talking about anything and everything. She didnt really get it. But to be honest I didnt really blame her because she wasnt brought up around it. She was brought up the same way as her parents, therefore ignorant of any technological advances. This sounds like a child in the 60's but in fact this was after the millenium. So she definately classes as the youngest digital immigrant I know. She has now gone to university and has facebook so she probably has now caught up with what she lacked before, but until last year this was completely different. I couldnt think of anyone I knew now but I thought that she was a very good example even if it is a year or two out of date!
Blog a) The oldest digital native you know
Obviously I think it is very hard to pin point where a native ends and an immigrant begins or the age someone has to be in order to be either of these. But I have to admit that my dad is probably the oldest digital native I know. Hes now in his 50's yet he still knows most stuff when it comes to technology. His job involves alot of technology in itself which i think may be accountable of why he maybe bucks the digital native trend. With his job he constantly uses mobile phones (although not for texting!) and computers to send emails or produce technical drawings. Now this amazes me as I know for a fact that if you sat me in front of a computer and told me to draw a 3-D landscape I wouldnt even know where to begin! Having said that my dad learnt on the and left school with just some o-levels, therefore he has had to learn all of this. He wasnt brought up around it therefore could he technically be seen as a digital native?
We recently moved house and my dad actually installed the TV's in all the rooms that needed them and set up the computer system, etc. I know I couldnt do this and im classed as a digital native. Although this could just be seen as a "man's" thing to do, but I actually believe it takes alot of knowledge in these particular areas in order to install or set up technology successfully. I have to agree though that he may not be as digitally native as some peoples dad's. Although he has mentioned setting up facebook he has never yet got round to it (but many of my friends parents do have it, though I would find it slightly strange my dad seeing all my university goings on!). I dont know whether this is because he hasnt had time or whether he just thinks it is "not for his generation". Yet, if I do have any queries about anything technology I do go to him although my sister can also be very helpful, shes a digital native to the core!
We recently moved house and my dad actually installed the TV's in all the rooms that needed them and set up the computer system, etc. I know I couldnt do this and im classed as a digital native. Although this could just be seen as a "man's" thing to do, but I actually believe it takes alot of knowledge in these particular areas in order to install or set up technology successfully. I have to agree though that he may not be as digitally native as some peoples dad's. Although he has mentioned setting up facebook he has never yet got round to it (but many of my friends parents do have it, though I would find it slightly strange my dad seeing all my university goings on!). I dont know whether this is because he hasnt had time or whether he just thinks it is "not for his generation". Yet, if I do have any queries about anything technology I do go to him although my sister can also be very helpful, shes a digital native to the core!
6) How does it differ from web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is a term used to describe the future of the World Wide Web. This is therefore a general term for the total evolution of the web in the future. Whereas the semantic web is something that will add to this evolution i.e and evolutionary tool. There may be other factors aswell as the semantice web which will be able to work together to advance the internet as we currently use it and bring it into a new "Web 3.0" age. These can sometimes be mistaken for meaning the same thing but it is the semantic web that makes up, eventually part of Web 3.0 as this is a completely new style of web. Whereas the semantice web is just something that makes a certain part of the web better.
5) What is the 'semantic web'?
I have to admit then while researching this it did take me a while to get my head around it but I think I got there in the end! The Semantic Web was a term thought up by Tim Berners- Lee (who also thought up the WWW fact fans!!!)and is basically a huge engineering tool. In technical jargon it is about "common formats for integration and combination of data drawn from diverse sources" (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/). It is also about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. It allows anyone on the Internet to add what they know and find answers to their questions in a relatively easy language to understand.Therefore, it is generally an extension of the World Wide Web (which isnt surprising considering who came up with the idea!) and a way of making global data easily accessible and readable on a global scale.
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