Critical Reflection: Marc Prensky's Argument, Making Money Online, and Plagiarism
CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THREE QUESTIONS
SCOTT J. WISNIEWSKI
INF103: COMPUTER LITERACY
INSTRUCTOR: LIVIA MUSE-JOHNSON
March 18, 2013
For this paper we will be doing some critical reflection on three basic; yet much argued questions. The first is an argument of Marc Prensky’s. Are our youth the digital natives that he coined? Are the older generation digital immigrants? Second, we will be looking into making money online and the question being asked: Are there limits? Lastly, we will be looking at whether or not it is a crime or netiquette to copy and paste or, in general use another’s works as your own. Is this wrong? In this paper, I will bring to light a few arguments and explain in detail and try to offer a feasible counter-argument in return. The first question offered by Mr. Marc Prensky is: Are our youth the digital natives and is the older generation the digital immigrants? I can agree that this, as a statement is, in my mind to a degree, is true. The one statement that I do not believe was cited here by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of a book titled Born Digital: “Are you a digital native? If you were born after 1980 then you are” (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). This statement loses me in that when I was a freshman in high school, we all stared at the first iMac and Apple IIe with awe and wonder. No Facebook, no IM, just DOS and not even 3.1. I doubt, very much, that a teenager from this day and age could even fathom on what to do with DOS. Prensky believes that I am the digital immigrant. I believe this statement. I was not born into the digital age, therefore I am not native. This would be much like my ancestors immigrating to the United States, we are not from here anymore then I am from this age. Also, Prensky goes on to add that: “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer
SCOTT J. WISNIEWSKI
INF103: COMPUTER LITERACY
INSTRUCTOR: LIVIA MUSE-JOHNSON
March 18, 2013
For this paper we will be doing some critical reflection on three basic; yet much argued questions. The first is an argument of Marc Prensky’s. Are our youth the digital natives that he coined? Are the older generation digital immigrants? Second, we will be looking into making money online and the question being asked: Are there limits? Lastly, we will be looking at whether or not it is a crime or netiquette to copy and paste or, in general use another’s works as your own. Is this wrong? In this paper, I will bring to light a few arguments and explain in detail and try to offer a feasible counter-argument in return. The first question offered by Mr. Marc Prensky is: Are our youth the digital natives and is the older generation the digital immigrants? I can agree that this, as a statement is, in my mind to a degree, is true. The one statement that I do not believe was cited here by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of a book titled Born Digital: “Are you a digital native? If you were born after 1980 then you are” (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). This statement loses me in that when I was a freshman in high school, we all stared at the first iMac and Apple IIe with awe and wonder. No Facebook, no IM, just DOS and not even 3.1. I doubt, very much, that a teenager from this day and age could even fathom on what to do with DOS. Prensky believes that I am the digital immigrant. I believe this statement. I was not born into the digital age, therefore I am not native. This would be much like my ancestors immigrating to the United States, we are not from here anymore then I am from this age. Also, Prensky goes on to add that: “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer
References: http://depd.wisc.edu/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives.htm https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUINF103.10.2/sections/sec8.2