Digital Native - Post 5

I was very surprised by the results of the digital natives quiz. When I compare myself to people like my parents, their friends, my aunts and uncles, etc, I would consider myself a digital native. Things such as texting, blogging, and instant messaging are completely foreign to them. This still seems strange to me because I basically grew up with these things in my life. I will admit that technology has come a long way (I still remember dial-up AOL) and I feel that I am still learning how many of these technologies function. When I took the quiz, I immediately was stumped by the first two words. I had never even heard the terms "modding" or "smart mobs". To be honest, I really only knew two of the words we were asked to define. I had heard of many of the terms but did not know exactly what they meant

With my failed quiz in mind, I guess I would still have to consider myself an emergent digital literacy learner. While I have the knowledge of some of digital literacy, it is obvious that I still have a lot to learn. I can now relate this experience to Tompkins description of emergent literacy for children. While we would like literacy to happen immediately and all at once, it does not work like that. It is a process that take a lot time and is a gradual process.