The following is an adaptation of the United States Oath of
Allegiance taken by all immigrants who wish to become naturalized citizens of
the United States upon passing through the appropriate channels. This is a version for digital immigrants. While its recitation is not imperative for becoming naturalized citizens of the
technological state, our actions are demonstrative and indicative of the
promise we make through our growing use and dependence on technology and new
media.
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and
abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any primitive tool to which I have hencetofore
been a subject; that I will support and defend the advancement and innovation
of the technological state; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
same; that I will construct my identity as a part of this new digital age; and
I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of
evasion; so help me Jobs.
Considering Prensky’s (2001) definitions of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, I did not have a hard time deciding that I was
a Digital Immigrant. I was not “born
into the digital world” but as a student, and with the advent of the Apple IPhone, I
have definitely “become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of new
technology.” As Dr. Barrios so aptly
stated in my class on the night of October 16th, 2012, we are, in fact, living in an Apple Ecosystem;
however, as technologically savvy as I would like to think I am, because I
consider myself a digital immigrant, I often find myself restricted by
technology. I cannot effortlessly go
forth and start using new media or technology without first learning it –
sometimes several times. While the World
Wide Web opens me up to endless possibilities with regard to the acquisition of information,
sometimes it can be a difficult place to navigate. Moreover, with technological innovations
knocking on every classroom door it is difficult not to incorporate technology
into our teaching and learning. Although
pencils and paper may never become obsolete, a stylus and a tablet is certainly
the way of the future.
I like to think of myself as a self-directed learner;
someone who takes the initiative and responsibility for regulating -- “planning,
implementing, and evaluating” (Hiemstra, 1994) -- my own progress on a lesson. As the world becomes more fascinated with
technology and society moves into a new dimension of functional literacy, in
which technology holds great weight, I do not feel as though my capacity to be
a self-directed learner has been retarded in anyway. Being a digital immigrant kicks
my tendency toward self-directed learning into overdrive. This is because in addition to familiarizing
myself with the new learning concept, I am also compelled to master the new
technology.
For example, my experiences with the new media project for this class
have shown me just how determined, and self-directed, albeit stubborn, I really
am as a student. Working
with the concept of a webquest, I first had to learn about webquests in
general. Moving forward into actually
creating a webquest, I had to familiarize myself with a lesson and curriculum
that would accommodate this type of teaching tool. Upon doing that I decided that Prezi was my medium of choice for
increasing the interactive-ness of this tool – sure a word document or
powerpoint presentation may have done the job just fine, but I decided to
challenge myself with yet another piece of new media. To make a long story short, there was a lot
going on here. Without having completed
the actual project I was swimming in learning concepts associated with it before
it manifested itself physically.
Neil Flemming provided a model for categorizing learning
styles in which he identified three types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile. According to Flemming, visual learners “think
in pictures”, they use visual aids to facilitate their learning; auditory
learners best acquire information by listening; and kinesthetic/tactile learners
are best engaged through exploration and experience – moving, touching, doing. I used
to pride myself on being a visual learner (for the most part). Put something in front of me to read and I
was good to go, words were my friends.
But now I realize that as technology advances into education, I am becoming more and more of a
kinesthetic/tactile learner – I need to do in an order to learn. It is no longer enough for me to see or hear something
in an effort to process or grasp an understanding of it. I need to touch it. I need to explore it. I need to experience it. I am becoming a new type of learner because of the evolution of functional
literacy vis a vis technology. I am still a self-directed learner because I believe this
is a part of my learning personality, but I am learning differently because of the
changing forms/embodiment of information.
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