Jane’s Blog

The Pros and Cons of Communicating via Instantaneous Technology

I am excited by the prospect of integrating technology into teaching high school students but I believe we also need to teach a new bag of social skills to go with the technology. We all know that teens are Net Gen’ers but we also know that there is a whole new world of social problems out there as a result of cyber-bullying, take for instance the Meier suicide in US.

I have been reading the Teen Culture articles and in particular Oblinger and Oblinger and am reminded of two things.

One, a Net Gen teen tells me how she is tired because her friend keeps texting her after midnight! “Turn off your phone when you go to bed…?” I suggest. One problem solved? Maybe. But this solution is not really appealing to Net Gen teen. Next, the same friend who texted at 1am and woke her is now an ex-friend due to the sleep-hazed terse reply to an invite. “You could try speaking to each other on the phone or even in person. Intonation and body language can help when communicating”…!

IM is useful but it has it’s place – maybe we should teach the Net Gen more about communication and social skills and what forms of communication are appropriate for what purpose. One acquaintance was complaining that she did not receive the SMS Wedding Invite from her friend who was upset that she had to ring her the week before the wedding due to her lack of RSVP!!!

Two, a play given by a public high school drama group at the ArtsNorth Drama Festival 2007 (held at UTS) about all the problems with technology and cyber-bullying – very insightful as students stand in line and get rearranged and depressed or elated depending on their new “friendship rank” based on IM amongst the group.

How effective is the learning when a person’s life is lived as “continuous partial attention” (Linda Stone, 1997 as quoted in Rainie)?

Next problem – we don’t all want to look like Mark Vaile with his cap facing backwards as he skateboards in his tie. How do we, digital immigrants, not look out of place to the digital natives?

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Available at: http://www.northernriversacc.com.au/images/pic_mark_vaile.JPG