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power/knowledge/internet
power/knowledge/internet
decreasing literacy
Related to country: Canada

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I’ve finally wrapped up a 2 week run of “student interest sessions” up north to gather a snapshot of the media usage of students in the school and to get some student feedback on what types of materials they would like to have in the library, possible changes to the decor etc. I interviewed 5 classes from grades 7-12. Although this was by no means scientific, the sessions helped me to gauge the state of media usage in this town’s youth. Some interesting observations:

  • no one knew basic web 2.0 terms like rss or tagging
  • the younger students didn’t even know the term “blog” despite the fact that they are all on bebo (Blog Early, Blog Often)
  • almost all students had a television in their bedrooms; more students had bedroom TVs than students who had internet connections in their homes
  • while the grade 11s and 12s students used the internet for a variety of purposes (social networking, research for school or general reference, news, webcomics, gaming etc.), the younger students used the internet almost exclusively as a social networking tool

It’s this last point that really struck me, almost disturbs me. I suppose it’s because the internet for my generation was about a certain kind of information, more reference based. Except for chat, modes of communication like discussion boards and newsgroups were primarily about sharing a more subject oriented, literate type of information (as opposed more speaker oriented, oral information. See earlier post). Even email (at least, when I first started using it), was a more literate form of communicating. It still is, when you compare it to IM, SNS “walls”, twitter posts etc.

It’s as if nothing exists outside bebo or youtube for the younger students. While I have seen students this age at the local youth center use different sites, I have never seen them use the internet for reference or more literate forms of information. In a town where resources for youth are so impoverished and the environment so extreme and isolated, the internet becomes that much more important as a way for youth to do research and to learn about the outside world. With the North becoming a new site of social, political and economic interest (opening trade routes, mining, climate change etc.) it seems to me that youth here cannot afford to maintain an insular attitude if they are going to be able to protect their land and help direct its development. Yet, the internet seems to be becoming less and less of a resource when it should be being utilized more and more…


February 24, 2008 | 3:02 AM Comments  2 comments

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leovietor Leo Viëtor
February 25, 2008 | 2:04 AM
Youth usage of the web
Hi,
I never tried to do research under the lower grades.
I am 50 yo myself and did not grow up with the web.
Maybe it is just kind of natural that kids use anything for playing purposes.
I liked your observations.
Greetz,
:-)
LeoVietor
esum e.sum
February 27, 2008 | 10:23 PM

That's a good point, Leo. Perhaps as those students grow older, they will start using the internet for more purposes. I hope so!
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