Does the term "digital natives" do kids a disservice?

In her thoughtful NetFamilyNews* post The media monsters we've created for our kids, Anne Collier writes:

By viewing kids as alien life forms called "digital natives," we send the message that children don't need tech-, media-, and social-literacy training to navigate the ocean of information at their fingertips 24/7 and the tricky sometimes harsh waters of digital-media-informed adolescent social development. And by focusing on technology instead of children, we create daunting, new-sounding things to fear like "cyberbullying," directing attention away from the good work already being done against bullying as well as cyberbullying by changing school cultures and teaching and modeling empathy, ethics, and citizenship (at school and online).

By calling our children "digital natives" are we running the risk of giving them too much credit for technology skills? I think it is a risk. And not just in the realm of online safety. I've long argued that knowing how to use  spreadsheet no more makes a person numerate than know how to drive a car makes one a plan meaningful trips.

In Old Folks and Technology (2002) I suggested that tech savvy students and world-smart adults team up - that there are still plenty of things those of us raised BC (before computers) can teach even today's kids about technology:

Some technologies    Some things with which old people can still help
Spreadsheets    Math sense, numeracy, efficiency in design
Charting and graphing software    Selecting the right graph for the right purpose
Database design    End user consideration, making valid data-driven decisions
Word processing    the writing process, organization, editing, grammar, style
Presentation software    Speaking skills, graphic design, organization, clarity
Web-page design    Design, writing skills, ethical information distribution
Online research    Citation of sources, designing good questions, checking validity of data, understanding biases
Video-editing    Storyboarding, copyright issues when using film clips and audio
Chat room use/Instant messaging    Safety, courtesy, time management

And of course on top of all this now is the intelligent selection of information one wishes to share online.

Anne does a great job of outline two other "monsters" we've created: "the paralyzing remove all risk monster" and "the extrememly busy adult blinding monster." Read the whole post and share it widely.

* NetFamilyNews should be required reading of all parents, teachers and educational policy makers. Anne's posts are always thoughtful and truly balanced observations about both the threats and promises of technology use by kids.

Are You Suffering from ALA Laryngitis?

Are You Suffering from ALA Laryngitis? Vote by Friday in the ALA Elections!

Guest post by ALA Presidential Candidate, Sara Kelly Johns

In a speech Hillary Clinton gave as a First Lady. She said, ‘If you don’t participate, you’re going to leave it to those who do. And you may not like what you find.”


So, far, participation in the ALA 2010 election is low. As of 4/15/2010, 2:06 pm, of 55,328 eligible voters, 8,164 (14.76%) have voted. This compares to last year at this time when, of 56,068 eligible voters, 10,187 (18.17%) had voted.  Doug Johnson always says that he pays his dues to have the right to complain; being a member gives you a voice---and voting for the people running your professional association is one way to speak up.

That said, many have complained that they did not get their electronic ballots.  If that is you and you can sort your e-mail, the sender is: ALA Election Coordinator and the subject line is: “ALA 2010 election login information below.” It could be in your spam file; many are. It could have been sent to an old e-mail address, too. Two reminders to vote have been sent, also. If you can’t find your login information, call the ALA membership office at 800-545-2433, option 5 or 866-909-3549, the direct line. It might take a few minutes but is worth the time to get your voice back.

Once you log in, the process can be onerous. It’s easy to vote for president and treasurer if you have decided on which person will be the best spokesman for your association (and I will appreciate your vote for me, of course!). You can then save that choice. The next page is the list of all the people running for Council and you have an allotted number of people for whom you can vote. Do you need to vote for that many? NO!

Your vote is more effective if you target those who match your beliefs and those you know. It does take a lot of time to read all the biographies for sure. To help out, AASL, YALSA and ALSC, the youth divisions, publish a list of youth candidates: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aboutaasl/aaslgovernance/aaslelections/general.cfm It may well be the perfect list for you to reference, mark your choices and submit that part of your ballot.

There are great candidates for division offices, too, such as AASL, YALSA and ALSC. They are separate ballots and I hope you will review, vote and submit them, also.

The voices of school librarians need to be heard at the national level. To quote Terri Kirk in the March/April issue of Library Media Connection (p. 36):

“The American Library Association has advocated for school librarians and school children in Washington, and will continue to do so no matter who is elected as president, but the voice could be a school librarian if we get the vote out. Wouldn’t it be cool if a school librarian was quoted on NBC Nightly News or interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS?”

Terri says later in the article, “Voting is easy so take the time, take the initiative, take the first step, take the advantage, and take control. You are the most important asset to ALA and to AASL. Make the most of it, VOTE!” You can make a difference! Dig out that ballot and get over that laryngitis!  Again, vote by 11:59pm on Friday, April 23rd.









Integrity

“There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity” - Tom Peters

This post will be tricky if I hope to take my own blogging advice to "praise locally, complain globally."

Over the past few weeks a couple of incidents at work have made me think a great deal about professional integrity and its importance in technology. Some breeches of privacy and inappropriate access to a system appear to have been committed by people whose values I thought I knew and who I thought knew better. To the best of my knowledge, no real harm was done and steps have been take to make sure such incidents don't happen again. But it left my faith in human nature more than a little shaken.

In the same way we give doctors access to our bodies and accountants access to our financial records, we give technicians access to our data in order for them to maintain the systems in which it is stored. And both a sense of professionalism and personal integrity keeps those of us who have access to such data from abusing this access. Or should.

When hiring, I've always looked carefully at both a person's technical skills and interpersonal communication abilities, deeming them the two defining characteristics of a great employee. Now I realize that without integrity, neither of these attributes is worth beans. A charming genius who can't be trusted is far worse than an antisocial incompetent who CAN be.

I don't know a simple test for integrity. I suspect most people would know the right answers to interview questions of honesty and privacy and appropriate behavior. Unfortunately, knowing the right answer is not always the same as doing the right thing. And given most people's highly advanced rationalization abilities, I often wonder if any of us can do a very accurate job of judging our own integrity.

Ironically, toward the end of the week, another incident occurred that did much to restore my faith in people. A former employee came to my office with a small plastic box in her hands and a sheepish look on her face. She explained that while doing some spring cleaning she ran across the box that had been stored with the personal school stuff she'd packed away on retirement over five years ago. She thought the box contained old rubber stamps and was shocked to find that she had inadvertently packed away the library's petty cash - money from lost books, etc. And she wanted to explain and return it. I don't remember at the time that anyone missed the funds and I am sure no one ever would have. Had she kept the money, no one would have known. Except for her, of course.