Blogg-Ed Indetermination

In a previous post, I reviewed Generation Text: Raising Well-Adjusted Kinds in an Age of Instant Everything by Michael Osit, and promised to follow-up with a review of a  new text from ISTE, Raising a Digital Child: A Digital Citizenship Handbook for Parents, by Mike Ribble.

Judging by the title, one might think that these books might be redundant. But they are not, for reasons that I will describe below. Both deserve a place on the educational technologist’s bookshelf, but for different reasons.

Ribble’s book is based on his previous volume from ISTE, Digital Citizenship in Schools. It takes the themes he developed there and extends them to the family.

Ribble’s central tenet is that we need to teach students how to be digital citizens, and that such citizenship is comprised of nine elements. These nine elements, in turn, may be broken into three categories.

HOME AND COMMUNITY

• Digital Access: full electronic participation in society.
• Digital Commerce: the buying and selling of goods online.
• Digital Communication: the electronic exchange of information.

HOME AND SCHOOL

• Digital Literacy: the capability to use digital technology and knowing when and how ot use it.
• Digital Etiquette: the standards of conduct expected by other technology users.
• Digital Law: the legal wrights and restrictions governing technology use.

HOME

• Digital Rights and Responsibilities: the privileges and freedoms extended to all digital technology users, and the behavioral expectations that come with them.
• Digital Health and Wellness: the elements of physical andd psychological well-being related to digital technology use.
• Digital Security: the precautions that all technology users must take to guarantee their personal safety and the security of the network.

What I like about Ribble’s approach is that it is “not simply a list of rules… but ideas and guidelines for thinking about technology.” This is consistent with my school’s alternative approach to “acceptable use” policies for students, which eschews a long list of “thou shalt nots” (and the regular need to amend the list as technology changes) and instead focuses on “honorable use.” Learning how to think about technology is also consistent with the new concept of “digital wisdom” espoused by Mark Prensky.

In the not-so-distant past, parents could rely upon their own experience as children and teens, and the guidance of their adult mentors, to help them navigate the challenges of childhood and adolescence. But parents today often lack experience in social networking, collaborative web technologies, text messaging, blogs, wikis, and other elements of the technology landscape so familiar to their children. Without context and the practical experience that comes from the mistakes, parents have little experience to inform their intuition and therefore be able to act as competent, wise coaches for their children. Lacking such experience, parents may be clueless about what their children are doing, think that everything on the Internet is harmful or dangerous, or abdicate all responsibility for digital education to the schools. There are obvious shortcomings to each of these approaches.

The only approach that has really makes any sense is to engage your child in conversation and practice about technology, learning as much as you can about the technology yourself by participating in it, and talking with other adults (parents and teachers) about technology.

Ribble describes a four stage process for parents to address digital citizenship:

1. Awareness
2. Guided Practice
3. Modeling and Demonstration
4. Feedback and Analysis

My experience is that most approaches to parent education about the technology use of children stop at stage 1, Awareness. This may be followed by (2) hand wringing, (3) installation of blocking software and/or keystroke capture software, and (4) lectures about the perils of the internet. Ribble’s model makes much more sense.

I am particularly fond of the idea of parents practicing with their children, and then modeling for their children, the responsible use of technology. I wish Ribble’s chapter on this model went into more detail about this process.

And this leads me to my major caveat about this book. Raising Digital Children will work best, I think, when used as a textbook in a parent education class led by an experienced educator. There are many open-ended questions that beg for an opportunity for parents to discuss among themselves before bringing these questions to their children. Similarly, while I believe it is instructive for parents to learn something about technology from their children, I also believe there is safety and security to be had when a group of parents learn how to create a Facebook account together, from another adult who knows about things like recommended security and privacy settings.

Taken together, Raising a Digital Child and Generation Text are two different yet compatible takes on the role parents have to play in rearing children in a digital age. The former would make a wonderful text for a class on the subject, while the latter would make an excellent companion reader.

Eight years ago, academic Marc Prensky provided us with two useful terms to differentiate between a younger generation of technology users who have grown up surrounded by the Internet and computers, from older users who had not, labeling them “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” respectively. In a recent article in Innovate, “H. Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Native to Digital Wisdom,” [free registration required] Prensky writes: “Although many have found the terms useful…the distinction between digital natives and digital immigrants [has] become less relevant. Clearly, as we work to create and improve the future, we need to imagine a new set of distinctions. I suggest we think in terms of digital wisdom.”

I agree. Chronologically a digital immigrant but spiritually a digital native, I have struggled with this distinction as I have watched clueless young people struggle with technology, accept information uncritically, and behave horribly online, while older people, sometimes even “senior citizens,” are as facile, excited, and connected as the best of the “natives.” As Prensky states, “Technology alone will not replace intuition, good judgment, problem-solving abilities, and a clear moral compass,” qualities which one often associates with experience gained over time. Prensky predicts the emergence of “digital wisdom,” a marriage of sorts, of “wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity and to wisdom in the prudent use of technology to enhance our capabilities.” [emphasis his]

Prensky references Nicholas Carr’s provocative article, “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” Prensky’s response is not surprising. “In fact, what’s happening now is very much the opposite: Digital technology is making us smarter.” So while we may not be as good at memorizing as students in Socrates day, telling time by the position of the sun in the sky, or we may struggle when reading a map or passing spelling tests, these “losses” pale in comparison to the gains to be had with a digitally enhanced mind and its access to a greater expanse of  collective memories and collaboration.

At this point in his article, I am really getting excited about the three questions he poses next:

• What constitutes digital wisdom?
• What habits do the digitally wise use to advance their capabilities and the capabilities of those around them?
• Can digital wisdom be taught?

But here is where the article begins to falter. Some examples of digital wisdom are provided in the form of the Obama campaign’s use of Web 2.0 technologies, and the use of blogs and wikis by journalists. And Prensky is quick to point out that there’s a difference between digital wisdom and what he dubs “digital cleverness.” But the exposition ends here. We’re left with an enticing idea that needs discussion and augmentation to make it as clear and useful as his earlier work.

Perhaps this is not so surprising. It is (to my knowledge), Prensky’s first article on digital wisdom, and no doubt deeper thinking is on the horizon. And as someone possessing digital wisdom, I expect we’ll here more from Prensky and that he, too, will hear more from the members of the digital community to augment this tantalizing proposition.

To that end, let me offer the following suggestions as food for thought.

A person is digitally wise when she or he:

• uses technology to contribute to the “marketplace of ideas” for the purpose of authentic assessment and to further our collective knowledge.
• uses technology to find arguments and counterarguments to propositions, uncover biases, and examine ideas from multiple perspectives.
• recognizes that technology can and should be used to augment human connections, that true wisdom lies in the exchange of ideas with others and not in the solitary confines of person and machine.
• uses technology for artistic expression to amplify and deepen the human understanding and representation of truth.
• trusts their instincts as well as the data; makes intuitive leaps beyond the data.

This is fun. Let the comments begin!

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A person is digitally wise when she or he…

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