Digital Dabbler

      Even though growing up in the 80’s meant that I wore MC Hammer pants, anything neon, and always had my hair in a side ponytail, I can’t claim to be a digital native. The only claim to fame I have from the 80’s is hideous fashion and being an expert playing Duck Hunt and Mario Brothers. Young people from ages twelve to seventeen are considered to be Digital Natives, and those who were not born into a digital world are considered to be Digital Immigrants.  So where do I, and other almost 30 something year olds fit into this mix?  Right smack dab in the middle as a Digital Dabbler (Kulyk, 2010).  I think the term “Digital Dabbler” is a suitable term for my era as we all dabbled in our share of technology such as ICQ, MSN messenger, MySpace, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, IRC, and web forums.

A Digital Dabbler’s Photosharing Learning Process

       You may not be a surprised to discover that I, a digital dabbler, created a Flickr account back in 2005. I remember that one of my friends, a freelance artist at the time, was the one who introduced Flickr to me.  She used Flickr as a space to share and sell her new artwork and connect with friends, and I used Flickr as a space to store and share my photos with friends too.  Needless to say I did not keep up my Flickr account, and after other social media came along such as Facebook, I never gave it a second thought.  A few years ago I created a new account, but because I have not been an avid user I had to create yet another new account because I forgot my login and password.  This time around, my learning consisted of what was different between signing up for an account as an informed adult educator versus a digital dabbler and I concluded the following: 

There Are Privacy Settings 

    Signing up as an informed adult meant that I was aware of the “settings option” in Flickr and I changed it accordingly. Being a digital dabbler in the late 90’s meant that we all explored, created, and shared, without batting an eye. Why would we? No one was teaching us how to be smart online or what it meant to be out there in cyberspace. This time around I knew to look for my personal settings and make the appropriate changes.

It Is Important to Keep Track of Usernames and Passwords

   Over the past few years I have created a lot of new accounts for a variety of different online tools and have come to realize the importance of being organized. I don’t want to give my secret away, but I now have a system for tracking all of this information.

Photosharing and My Personal Life

     In the years 2004-2007 there was a widespread adoption of social media and I, like many others, was caught up in the hype. Yet, in 2010 I have moved away from creating albums online, organizing my pictures, and even taking pictures. We did take photos during our summer holiday in NYC but they are nicely organized on my husband’s MAC and have been backed up onto our external hard drive. I know that other digital dabblers continue to create and share their holiday photos, wedding and baby photos online. So why is it that I stopped creating, customizing and sharing my photos on social media sites? Is it because I don’t feel like I have a purpose for creating an album or uploading photos when we already use iphoto? I know that one of the driving forces behind personal media creation is sharing your media with others. As I pondered why I don’t use photosharing more in my personal life I realized that I don’t know who I would share it with.  I am aware that “online sites for storing and circulating personal media are facilitating a growing set of options for sharing and youth do not need to carry around photo albums to share photos with friends and family” (Lange & Ito, 2010, p.248). I know quite a few people who use photosharing sites such as Flickr to send pictures and videos of their children to their families and friends that live far away. I could see wanting to share our pictures that way when we decide to have children but, until then I need to have a purpose and driving force to create something. I am no longer driven to share my pictures with friends, but I am more inclined to share with family.  Until I have a purpose or reason to share my photos I will find other activities to do in my spare time. Just like our students, I need to have a purpose or driving force to want to complete an activity. I do realize that it is important for me as a learner to be aware and stay abreast of new technologies and advances in web 2.0 tools. After dabbling with Flickr and other photosharing sites I realized that I am more apt to stay current by utilizing this tool in my library and classroom. 

Implications For Teaching and Learning 

Teaching Digital Natives

      It is undeniable that the world is rapidly changing. What does this mean for education, and what should a 21^st century education consist of? Ken Kay (2010) believes that a 21^st century education must be “tied to outcomes, in terms of proficiency in core subject knowledge and 21^st century skills that are expected and highly valued in school, work, and community settings” (p. xx).  As I reflected on photosharing as a tool, I considered ways in which it allows our students to think, learn, solve problems, communicate, collaborate, and contribute with others and the world. Interestingly enough, I discovered that using and accessing Flickr and other photosharing sites allow our students to have exposure to multimodal and digital literacies.  Multimodality refers to “the combination of two or more modes in representation-linguistic (written words), visual, audio, gestural, and spatial” ( Mills,K. 2010, p.2).  But where do we begin? How do we introduce various web 2.0 tools and new literacies? How do we know if our students are ready for them? 

    Over the past few years I have come to realize that we can’t assume that all of our students are digital natives, or that all of them are at the same level of readiness to learn.  Dewey (1929) brought to the forefront the importance of learners’ readiness to learn and the need to take into account the knowledge, competencies, and interests of the learner as a place to begin instruction. 

Photosharing In The Classroom and Library

Using photosharing as a tool for instruction may not be a starting point, but rather a springboard. Teaching with, and using images allows students to explore tagging, privacy options, digital citizenship, searching, representing, and sharing. As with other web 2.0 tools we must consider how we could scaffold instruction for our students.  Photosharing is going to look quite different in the Kindergarten classroom than what it would in a grade eight classroom. There are numerous opportunities to use photosharing in the classroom as an instructional tool and an excellent starting point would be the teacher modelling and using this tool. Berger and Trexler (2010) in their book Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World provide examples of how teachers and students are using photosharing in many different ways.  Some of the ideas that I gleaned that I would like to try with teachers are: virtual storytelling, illustrating a poem, virtual field trip, art study, and classifying. I am also hoping to explore with some photosharing in the library by advertising library programs, capturing photos of our students reading and being engaged. These could be displayed on the projector as a slideshow or on a digital photo frame. 

Final Thoughts

 As we plan for instruction and consider tools and strategies for our 21^st century learners we must never assume that our digital natives have the necessary skills and foundation to read, view, and participate ethically and collaboratively both on and off the web. As I reflect on photosharing as an instructional tool I know that it could be used in almost every subject area and could be scaffolded in such a manner to meet the needs of all learners in different grades.  The “how” and “what” may change across the grade levels, but ultimately this is one more tool that will allow our students to become part of a participatory culture of learners. 

References

 

Mills, K. (2010). Shrek Meets Vygotsky: Rethinking Adolescents' Multimodal Literacy Practices in Schools. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 35-45. doi:10.1598/JAAL.54.1.4.

Berger, Pam & Sally Trexler. (2010).  Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.