Are We Digital Natives or Digital Immigrants???? (ENG 3010)

Its weeks after the elections and I could not be happier. Not because Barack Obama’s the president but for some other minor reasons. Today in our English class after almost a month and half of talking about politics and media bias, our teacher assigned us something far more different and interesting to read. I read an article today by Marc Prensky titled ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’. The author makes some good and valid points on the emergence of a new digital media young generation. Today’s younger generation surrounded by new age technology has a whole different style of thinking than the previous generation. He calls the young generation of today as ‘Digital Natives’ since they have been surrounded by technology since the moment they were born. He calls the rest as ‘Digital Immigrants’ since we had to adapt to the use of technology in our daily lives. I think the invention of state-of-the-art video games and the internet is the prime cause of bringing this revolutionary change. These days the video games are made not only keeping the kids in mind but also the youth. The video games have ratings just like for the TV shows and movies. Some of the games have serious adult content in terms of violence and portrayal of sex. The kids of today are really getting tech-savvy. I am only 20 years old and seeing my little cousins (10 and 8 years old) playing video games and surfing on the internet makes me feel really old and someone from the past generation. It makes me a ‘Digital Immigrant’ and them ‘Digital Natives’. I like the way the author came up with these terms so appropriately. I think due the emergence of new age gaming system like X-Box, PS I, II, III and Wii took gaming to a whole different level. The gaming systems can now integrate with the internet and play and compete against other online players sitting virtually at any corner of the world. It’s a nice way to bring the world together…lol. Internet is of course had gotten far better than video games. With the exponential growth of websites on virtually anything and everything, you have everything you need right at your fingertips. Schools and universities have recognized the benefits of the internet and have successfully integrated the use of internet in their curriculum to enhance student learning experience. For almost all the college classes, I have taken so far, all the teachers have posted their class notes and their audio recordings online on blackboard website. This makes it very convenient for the students to have access to the teacher’s information anytime and as many times as they want. But there is also a disadvantage to it. Students don’t feel the need to come to lectures since they can listen to it later. Teachers have come up with daily attendance point system to rectify the problem. At many universities the teachers make the use of ‘clickers’ –which is way to take daily attendance. The teachers ask the students multiple choice questions at the beginning or end of the lecture. The students are required to answer those questions Many times the teachers show animation of important and hard-to-understand concepts via different educational websites with the use of the internet. Thus in my opinion technological advancements has been nothing but a boon to the human race.
But there still exists a flock of teachers who still haven’t welcomed or fully adapted the ‘going digital’ concept thoroughly. For example, for the research paper in ENG 1010 class, we were supposed to cite three sources. But NONE of the resources could be internet-based. She did not want us to find any sources off the internet even though the websites were reliable. Instead she made all of us to go different libraries and search for written documents that support our research topics. It took me two days to find such articles in magazines and newspaper when it could easily be done in less than 2 hours—had she allowed us to use the internet sources. Her argument was that internet makes the job easier and it’s an easy way out. She failed to understand that we can find more and far better materials to support our argument. This is the best example of the teacher being ‘digital immigrant’ and students being ‘digital natives’. Another important point that Prensky makes in his article is common belief of the digital immigrant parents and teachers that students cannot be educated via watching TV or listening to music. This used to be true back in the days when TV and music was meant only for entertainment. But due to immergence of TV channels like, Discovery, National Geographic and History the youth are able to better educate themselves about the environment, wild life and happening of the past in a much better way. The youth of today have increasingly become ‘visual learners’. Thanks to the development of these educational channels.
I agree with pretty much everything that Prensky had to stay in his article except for one thing. I don’t agree with is proposal of turning everything into a game for the kids and young adults since they appear to learn best the ‘digital way’. Prensky argues that since kids learn so much faster with the help of video games, the schools should modify their curriculum in such a way that all the learning can actually happen in a exciting and joyful manner through the use of video games. Such an approach is feasible only upto elementary schools where kids don’t need to stress out with course work as much. But as the kids move on to high school and college, education via games is not at all possible. Think of about it for a second: You cannot turn a kid into a doctor by making him play video games all day long. I think it is a terrible idea to even experiment. It’s sensible to introduce the use of computer software to better explain the concepts and subject matter with the help of 3 dimensional diagrams and animated movies etc. but the suggestion to completely replace the traditional textbooks is ridiculous in my opinion. Kids need to learn to focus and try to find a way on his/her own to make the boring stuff interesting. While learning any new information is always boring and dull in the beginning. Kids have to learn to deal with it. This is a quality every child needs to develop in him to sustain the atrocities that life will throw at him as he grows older. Overall a good read. Stay tuned for more on this next week.

Bias 2--Discussion continued this week as well (ENG 3010)

Hello again,
So on the week of halloween, we contunued our discussion on bias in media. One of the three groups who still had to make thier presentation went ahead and presented their project to the class. They were assgined to search for any sort of bias on the diferent radio channels. NPR was the only radio channel that was found to be really neutral in terms of their plitical views. It makes sense because it is government run and it is not looking for any profit from private companies. Whereas other local and national public radio channels were either shifted slightly to the left or to the right.
The reamining two groups went on wednesday. Their presentation was interesting too. In the end we as a class came to a conclusion that there is defiantely some kind of bias preelant in everything around us. A bias-free society is practically impossible because not everyone will agree with everything that is going on around us at this time.
One specific type of bias which was seen in every form of media was that, all of them were either suporting democrats or republicans. They would only cover news from the presidential candidates of these two parties while in reality there are many more third party candidates runnig for president. As citizens, we never learn or hear anything abot what these candidates have to say. The media does not give them any coverage at all. Hence, this is also one type of bias that eery media is following.
That's all we talked this week. On friday our class got cancelled because the STATE HALL--the builiding where our class meets was closed down by the Wayne State University Police Department. There was supposedly a 'bomb threat' in the building. All classes in the buidling were cancelled for the rest of the day. Thankfully there was no bomb found. I am assuming that someone made a prank call since it was Halloween on friday. That's it for this week. Stay tuned for more on Bias next week.

Class Presentation Week ---ENG 3010

This week in English was very eventful. The class was divided in 6 groups. Each group was assigned a specific type of media. The group’s job was to find any sort of political bias in their respective type of media. My group was initially assigned ‘Magazine’. But we traded that with another group who had ‘Internet’. Quite surprisingly that’s what they wanted! It all worked out perfectly. So with regard to our assignment we decided to look at a variety of political websites and tried to find bias in them. So I looked at a lot of network websites like CNN.com, MSNBC.com, ABC News.com, FOX News.com. In terms of international coverage on US politics, I also looked at TIMES OF INDIA.com and INDIA Today.com. Other members of my group looked at other local news websites and blogs. Wednesday we had no class. So we utilized that time in getting together and organizing our strategy on how to carry out the 10 minute presentation in class for Friday. Even on Friday we got together and rehearsed the final presentation. In class, we drew on the board, a ‘spectrum’ of the websites ranking them for being the ‘most liberal’ to the ‘Neutral’ to ‘most conservative’. Each one of us had a chance to talk and explain why a particular website that they looked at, was inclined more towards the right or left. All together we covered a total of 15-20 websites. Our presentation lasted for 25 minutes. Ours was the longest and much more comprehensive in terms of content than others groups they made their presentation after us. Everyone liked our spectrum. It was really cool.
Two other groups went after us. One group did their presentation on ‘Radio’ and the other on ‘Magazine’. The magazine group made a big poster in which they put various types of magazines in 3 categories: Liberal, Neutral and Conservative. They made good use of visual aid. The radio group’s presentation, in terms of content, was good as well. That’s how the lecture on Friday ended. On the whole, it was one of the most exciting days in class. On Monday, the remaining three groups are supposed to make their presentation. I am eager to see what they come up with.

Bias in Media--ENG 3010

This week in class we discussed the topic of liberal media into more depth. To start with we watched a video from CNN’s Crossfire during the time of the 2004 presidential election. This was the one when Jon Stewart---the host of the Daily Show makes an appearance on the show. On the show, Jon Stewart runs into an argument with the hosts and accuses the hosts of not carrying out their jobs honestly and seriously. He blamed the two hosts of not conducting the debate on the show truthfully and that they were hurting America. He told them that they were supposed to deliver real, serious news and not entertainment. The two hosts accused Jon Stewart of doing the same. Jon Stewart in response to that argued that as a comedian, he was supposed to entertain the people.
After watching the debate, we openly discussed our viewpoints on the Jon Stewarts’ accusations. Most of us in the class, agreed with him but at the same came up with the interesting point that Jon Stewart should also attempt to make his show a little more current-news oriented because most of the young men in America get their daily news feed by watching his show which was scary because Jon is good as entertainment but not the best when it comes to getting serious news from his show.
Later this wee we talked about different kinds of media that exists. The class was divided into 5 groups and each group was assigned one type of media. The group’s job was to come up with any kind of political bias that we could find in our respective media. My group is assigned the ‘Internet’ as the media. So my group members have decided to check out a variety of websites where we can potentially find political bias. We have one week to do some research and at the end of the next week, we are expected to present, to the class, a brief presentation on our findings.

Liberal Media---ENG 3010

Okay so this week in our English class we did not do anything specific. We continued talking about Host by David Foster Wallace (which by the way is an interesting read if you ever get a chance). We also talked a little about the vice presidential debate (which I expected to be a very funny one but instead turn out to be one of the most serious debates I ever watched. All my roommates and I were waiting anxiously for Sarah Palin to say something stupid one more time.. but not this time. She was well prepared and made a huge comeback by directly attacking Obama and Biden). On Friday we actually talked about something that not many people are concerned about. We talked about Liberal media and its role during this critical election time. My professor expected all of us to have heard this term like a million times. But as far I am concerned, it was the first time ever that I heard of the term. LOL. I read the article from THE NATION on Liberal Media which gave me a better understanding of what exactly it meant.
Liberal Media was often used as an excuse by the conservatives for conservative failures. They blamed it on the media to give special coverage to the liberals so that the liberals could better communicate their ideas to the larger masses of the people. But some republicans are honest enough to admit that there is no such thing as bias towards the liberals by the media. Patrick Buchanan, one of the most conservative presidential candidates in Republican history, admitted that he could not identify any allegedly liberal bias against him during his presidential campaigns. He admitted to have equal and balanced coverage.
Personally I believe that the media is not biased towards either the left wing or the right wing. They choose to give broader coverage to the stories of either party-----stories that will attract more viewers to their news channels. With cut throat competition among the news channels, the media cannot afford to side either one of the two parties. The media is no longer neutral. It’s all about their own monetary profit. They select their news based on how many viewers and advertisement sponsorers they can get. For example, ABC World News and CNN News TV channels made a big deal about Sarah Palin’s controversial remarks in several interviews earlier last month. This might make it seem that there is a strong and powerful existence of liberal media. But it’s not exactly true. Sean Hannity of Fox news delivered a special report entitled ‘Obama and Friends’ where he questioned Obama’s worthiness to be the next commander-in-chief. According to Sean Hannity, Obama has had close ties with various radical and terrorist organizations in the past which makes him unfit to lead America. So in the end it all ends up to PERSONAL BIAS. It all depends on what news channel appeals YOU the most and what news YOU choose to watch more often. Bias lies in every step of our lives and it is practically impossible to have a bias-free society. Its something we have to get used to.
I am calling it night, tune back next week!

Grades do not fulfill the main purpose of learning---ENG 3010

I feel that the present grading system is not effective in evaluating a person’s qualifications. Grades act against the main purpose of learning. Grades focus one’s all attention on tests. Academic success is no longer measured in terms of knowledge but in grade points. Students hardly retain the knowledge after the final exam as only the points scored in it counts. Grades, hence, prevent from enriching one’s mind.

It’s not grade that keeps one going. It is a disbelief that one would never volunteer to undergo the misery to learn the topics one is least interested in. Learning happens when one has the desire to know new things for his own self. One does not need grades to learn to walk, talk, drive, dance etc. One hangs on to these with his life but loses hold of the very subjects on which he is graded. I would like to use a very appropriate and interesting metaphor to support my point. Compare grades to a game of cards. Just as one starts a new round after shuffling the previous cards, one starts a new term and hardly retains anything from his pervious terms.

Therefore I believe that true knowledge does not take place in class. But instead
it can achieved through conversing with the intellectuals and scholars about something that fascinates you the most.

Host's Classroom Discussion---ENG 3010

So this week in our English 3010 class, we were assigned to read David Foster Wallace’s ‘Host’. To comment on the reading I went to be honest and said that it was a ridiculously long reading assignment and was way too confusing as well. The first thing, I noticed about the reading were the crazy arrows and boxes. The boxes served the same purpose as the footnotes but it looked nothing like the footnotes. Footnotes generally lie at the bottom of the page and they are just 3-4 lines. But the boxes were as big as a paragraph. So the strategy that I tried to apply was to first read the entire article by completely ignoring the boxes. But the boxes were less ignorable because they were right in the middle of the main text for most times. In case of the footnotes, I, like most readers, would be more inclined to skip them. But in cases of boxes, one can’t do that. So the author does the good job of making the reader pay more attention to the sub-text. For the most part, the boxes were as big and fat as a paragraph. They broke the main text visually, and you had to read over the box to get to the next paragraph of the article.

The concept of boxes was completely new for me. I never came across a reading like this before. I had a tough time reading the boxes along with the paragraph. So I read one paragraph, then, read the boxes pertaining to it. I skipped a few big boxes in between which made my reading even tougher because some of the boxes that I did read, referred to the boxes, I hadn’t read earlier.

I found the reading little funny at few places. For example, on page number 319, there is a ?! inside a box. It was the smallest box of the entire reading. It was funny in a bizarre way because those two characters are just lying there inside the box. You can’t even ignore looking at it, because it’s right in the middle of the main text. Another thing that I thought it was funny was that, in some cases, there were boxes inside the boxes which were kinda cool. Sometimes, the boxes contained more humorous information related to the articles. Due to the boxes, it seemed like you, as a reader, were sitting right to David Foster Wallace and you were having a live conversation with him. It seemed like the author himself was telling you a story (in a box) and while he was talking, he remembered another story (box inside the box).

This was pretty much what we did this entire week. Everyday we discussed the reading in a variety of different aspects of literature. I like the classroom discussion sessions like this one. Stay tuned for more next week!