Sunday, July 26, 2015

Responding to Charles Crook

While I was reading through Charles Crook's "The 'Digital Native' in Context", I had a thought about what seems to be a mischaracterization of the adoption of technology by youth. Crook narrows the situation down to "digital native" versus "digital immigrant" which is indeed part of the issue. But he fails to mention socio-economic factors in the disparity in Web 2.0 adoption.

This might be a function of the British perspective. Computer use is far more assured in the United Kingdom, with one study from 2014 explaining that "tablets are now being used... in 68% of primary and 69% of secondary schools" (Coughlan, BBC News*). With less than a quarter of the population of the United States and with a stronger school system in place, the UK can bypass many of the issues faced by poor school districts and mismanaged state education systems in the United States. Some students simply don't have to time or resources to adapt to Web 2.0 learning unless the school mandates it, making adoption of these tools contingent on better funding.









*http://www.bbc.com/news/education-30216408

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