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Electronic Interaction Is Making Americans Less
Literate
What is the Impact of Cyberlife?, 2008
Jeremy , "Virtual Companionship," , October 11, 2006.
Reproduced byRifkin International Herald Tribune
permission of the author.
is the author of Jeremy Rifkin The Age of Access and many
other books about the impact of scientific,
technological, and cultural changes on the economy, society,
and the environment.
People all over the world are preoccupied with developing new
technologies for communicating with one
another, but while people are communicating more, they seem
to be having more trouble expressing
themselves. Furthermore, future generations seem doomed to
lose emotional attachments with their
fellow human beings. To help with this problem, researchers are
trying to develop computerized virtual
characters who can recognize human emotions and respond
accordingly. Such technological
pretensions are both sad and frightening.
Over the past 20 years or so [since 1986], we have been
preoccupied with developing new ways of
communicating with each other. Our cellphones, computers,
Blackberries, text messaging, e-mail and the
Internet connect 25 percent of the human race in a speed-of-
light global village.
At the same time that we are connecting the central nervous
system of our species in an electronic embrace, the
human vocabulary is plummeting all over the world, making it
more difficult to express ourselves. It appears that
we are all communicating more, but saying less.
Declining Literacy, Growing Loneliness
According to a national survey conducted by the U.S.
Department of Education [DOE], English literacy among
college graduates has declined dramatically in the past 10 years
[since 1996]. Only 31 percent of college
graduates today are proficient in English literacy, compared
with 40 percent just a decade ago. Grover J.
Whitehurst, the director of the DOE Institute responsible for
overseeing the National Assessment of Adult
Literacy, said that he believes that literacy is declining as a
result of the increase in television viewing and surfing
the Internet.
Worse, it seems the more connected we are in our electronic
landscapes, the lonelier we find ourselves. A study
by the Kaiser Family Fund showed that American children now
spend an average of 6.5 hours per day watching
television, surfing the Internet, text messaging and playing with
video games and other electronic media. More
worrisome, the study found that most children interact with
electronic media alone.
Our children are losing the emotional attachments that come
with face-to-face participation with their fellow
human beings. Nor are American youngsters an anomaly.
Children in other high-tech countries are following
close on the heels of their American peers. This new condition
can be described as the "high-tech blues."
Virtual High-Tech Blues
Are future generations to be forever lonely? No, say the
technological optimists. Engineers at some of the
leading technology centers are feverishly working on the next
generation of technological marvels to address our
lonesome high-tech existence. The field is called "affective
computing" and the goal is to create technology that
can express emotion, interpret and respond to the emotions of
their human handlers, and even establish a sense
of intimacy with their human companions. Built-in cameras
allow the computers to detect even subtle changes in
facial expressions, which are then processed in real time,
allowing the computer to recognize the emotional state
of the person.
A growing number of young people find themselves enmeshed
in virtual worlds where make-believe
substitutes for real-life experience.
Rosalind Picard, one of the pioneer researchers in the field of
"affective computing," reports on a study done at
the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] MIT Media Lab. A
computerized virtual person named "Laura" plays
the role of an exercise adviser, helping real-life subjects. Laura
is capable of conversing and is able to use hand
gestures, eye-gaze behavior, posture shifts, head-nods and facial
expressions. Laura, like any good exercise
trainer, provides feedback on their performance, helps them
improve on their regimen, and gives empathetic
verbal and facial feedback.
The reactions of the subjects are revealing. Compared with
subjects interacting with a "non-relational" computer
interface, a number of the subjects—but not all—working with
Laura reported an emotional rapport similar with
what one might expect with a real-life trainer.
Other experiments conducted at Stanford University report
similarly positive results with empathetic embodied
computer agents interacting with subjects, leading researchers
to conclude that "embodied computer agents are
indeed social actors in the truest sense of the word 'social,'
capable of forming relationships with users
comparable to those found in the world of human-human
interactions."
It's hard to know whether to laugh off such technological
pretensions as sadly pathological or whether to be truly
frightened. There is no doubt that a growing number of young
people find themselves enmeshed in virtual worlds
where make believe subtitutes for real-life experience. With
"affective computing" looming on the horizon, the
truly lonely can look forward to interacting with silicon
companions, programmed to empathize and even care.
Progress? Surely we can do better.
Further Readings
Books
Thor Alexander, ed. . Hingham, MA: Charles River Media,
2005.Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2
Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile, and Katherine E.
Buckley Violent Video Game Effects on Children
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.and Adolescents:
Theory, Research, and Public Policy
Jack M. Balkin and Beth Simone Noveck, eds. . New York:The
State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds
New York University Press, 2006.
Richard A. Bartle . Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing,
2004.Designing Virtual Worlds
John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade .Got Game: How the Gamer
Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever
Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
David Bell, Brian D. Loader, Nicholas Pleace and Douglas
Schuler, eds. .Cyberculture: The Key Concepts
New York: Routledge, 2004.
Brenda Brathwaite . Boston, MA: Charles River Media,
2007.Sex in Video Games
Paul Carr and Graham Pond . New York: St. Martin's Press,The
Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life
2007.
Edward Castronova . New York: PalgraveExodus to the Virtual
World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality
Macmillan, 2007.
Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby Smartbomb: The Quest for
Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the
. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2005.Videogame
Revolution
Robbie Cooper, Julian Dibbell, and Tracy Spaight . London,
U.K.: ChrisAlter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators
Boot, 2007.
Julian Dibbell . New York:Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day
Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot
Basic Books, 2006.
James Paul Gee . New York: PalgraveWhat Video Games Have
to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy
Macmillan, 2003.
Henry Jenkins . New York: New York UniversityFans,
Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture
Press, 2006.
Steven Johnson Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's
Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us
. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005.Smarter
R. V. Kelly II Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing
Games: The People, the Addiction and the Playing
. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004.Experience
Brad King and John Borland Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise
of Computer Game Culture from Geek to
. Emeryville, CA: McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003.Chic
Raph Koster . Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press, 2005.A Theory
of Fun for Game Design
David Kushner . NewMasters of Doom: How Two Guys Created
an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
York: Random House, 2003.
Marc Prensky "Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning!": How
Computer and Video Games Are Preparing Your
. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2006.Kids for Twenty-First
Century Success and How You Can Help
Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds. . Cambridge, MA:
MITHandbook of Computer Game Studies
Press, 2005.
Michael Rymaszewski, et al. . Indianapolis, IN: Wiley
Publishing, 2007.Second Life: The Official Guide
Ralph Schroeder and Ann-Sofie Axelsson, eds. Avatars at Work
and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in
. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006.Shared Virtual
Environments
David Williamson Shaffer . New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2006.How Computer Games Help Children Learn
John Suler , revised version, 2007. The Psychology of
Cyberspace www-usr.rider.edu/
~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html.
Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, eds. . New York:
Routledge, 2003.The Video Game Theory Reader
Periodicals
Susan Arendt "Doctor Urges AMA to Recognize Game
Addiction as a Disorder," , June 14, 2007.Wired
http://www-usr.rider.edu/
Alicia Ault "Turn On, Tune Out, Get Well?" , October 4,
2005.Washington Post
Jack Balkin "Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom
to Play in Virtual Worlds," ,Virginia Law Review
2005.
Celeste Biever "The Irresistible Rise of Cybersex: From Full-on
Encounters to Online Dating with a Twist,
Simulated Sex is on the Up in Mainstream Gaming," , June 17,
2006.New Scientist
Kyle Brazzel "Multiplayer Mania: In Some Circles, Tragic
Headlines Have Sparked Alarms About 'Addiction' to
Online Video Games," , March 28, 2007.Arkansas Democrat-
Gazette
Leslie Brody "Can You Be a Video-Game 'Addict'?" , August
19, 2006.Seattle Times
John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas "You Play World of
Warcraft? You're Hired!" , April 1, 2006.Wired
Business Wire "Gartner Says 80 Percent of Active Internet
Users Will Have a 'Second Life' in the Virtual
World by the End of 2011," April 24, 2007.
Edward Castronova "On Virtual Economies," , December
2003.Game Studies
Marcus D. Childress and Ray Braswell "Using Massively
Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games for Online
Learning," , August 2006.Distance Education
Current Events "Living a Second Life: Virtual Worlds Create
New Reality," January 22, 2007.
Sara de Freitas and Mark Griffiths "Online Gaming as an
Educational Tool in Learning and Training," British
, June 2007.Journal of Educational Technology
Julian Dibbell "The Unreal Estate Boom," , January 1,
2003.Wired
Economist "A Model Economy," January 22, 2005.
Economist "Breeding Evil? The Real Impact of Video Games,"
August 6, 2005.
Anthony Faiola "When Escape Seems Just a Mouse-Click Away:
Stress-Driven Addiction to Online Games
Spikes in South Korea," , May 27, 2006.Washington Post
Allison Fass "Sex, Pranks, and Reality," , February 7,
2007.Forbes
Alison George "Striking Out for the New Territory," , October
21, 2006.New Scientist
Mark D. Griffiths, Mark N. O. Davies, and Darren Chappell
"Breaking the Stereotype: The Case of Online
Gaming," , November 2003.CyberPsychology & Behavior
Cathy Lynn Grossman "Net Faithful Find Second Life," , April
2, 2007.USA Today
Paul Ryan Hiebert "Games for People Who Want to Change the
World," ,Canadian Dimension
November-December 2006.
Becky Hogge "Virtually the Same as Normal: Many Are Turning
to Second Life Just as It Starts to Mirror the
Real World," , October 30, 2006.New Statesman
Moon Ihlwan "South Korea: Video Games' Crazed Capital," ,
March 26, 2007.Business Week
James D. Ivory "Still a Man's Game: Gender Representation in
Online Reviews of Video Games," Mass
, Winter 2006.Communication and Society
David R. Johnson "How Online Games May Change the Law
and Legally Significant Institutions," New York
, 2004-2005.Law School Review
F. Gregory Lastowka and Dan Hunter "The Laws of the Virtual
Worlds," University of Pennsylvania Law
School Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series,
May 2003.
Carrie Levine "Schools, Libraries Finding Second Life in
Second Life: Groups Test Waters of Online
'Metaverse'," , February 10, 2007.Charlotte Observer
Steven Levy, et al. "Living a Virtual Life," , September 18,
2006.Newsweek
David Lipke "Big Game Hunters," , February 12, 2007.Daily
News Record
Regina Lynn "Second Life Gets Sexier," , August 25,
2006.Wired
Michel Marriott "We Have to Operate, but Let's Play First," ,
February 24, 2005.New York Times
PC Advisor Staff "Three Minutes With: Second Life Exec," ,
April 21, 2007.PC World
lvars Peterson "Games Theory: Online Play Can Help
Researchers Tackle Tough Computational Problems,"
, March 17, 2007.Science News
Jonathan Rauch "Sex, Lies, and Video Games," , November
2006.Atlantic Monthly
Cynthia Reynolds "Videogame Widows," , January 16,
2006.Maclean's
Bonnie Ruberg "Sex in Games: It's a Turn-On," , June 13,
2006.Wired
Richard Siklos "A Virtual World but Real Money," , October
19, 2006.New York Times
Mike Snider "Video Games Actually Can Be Good for You," ,
September 27, 2005.USA Today
Joel Stein "My So-Called Second Life," , December 16,
2006.Time
Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler "Meet the Gamers:
They Research, Teach, Learn, and Collaborate.
So Far, Without Libraries," , April 2005.Library Journal
Chris Suellentrop "Playing with Our Minds," , Summer
2006.Wilson Quarterly
Aimee Tompkins "The Psychological Effects of Violent Media
on Children," , December 14,AllPsych Journal
2003.
Monica T. Whitty "Pushing the Wrong Buttons: Men's and
Women's Attitudes Toward Online and Offline
Infidelity," , December 2003.CyberPsychology and Behavior
Dmitri Williams "Excessive Online Gaming," , August 18,
2006.Washington Post
Dmitri Williams "Groups and Goblins: The Social and Civic
Impact of an Online Game," Journal of
, December 2006.Broadcasting & Electronic Media
Dmitri Williams and Marko Skoric "lnternet Fantasy Violence:
A Test of Aggression in an Online Game,"
, June 2005.Communication Monographs
Wylie Wong "Gaming in Education," , May-June 2007.EdTech
Nick Yee "The Labor of Fun," , January 2006.Games and
Culture
Internet Resources
Andrea Lynn "No Strong Link Seen Between Violent Video
Games and Aggression," ,www.physorg.com
August 11, 2005.
Grace Wong "Educators Explore 'Second Life' Online," ,
November 14, 2006.www.cnn.com
Web Sites
The Daedalus Project Web site: The Daedalus Project is an
ongoing study ofwww.nickyee.com/daedalus.
http://www.physorg.com
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus
the psychology of more than 40,000 MMORPG players directed
by Stanford University researcher Nick Yee,
an expert on online games and immersive virtual reality. An
extensive library of Yee's reports on the results of
his research and a lexicon of MMORPG terms and abbreviations
are available at this site.
GameDev.net Web site: GameDev.net claims to be the leading
online community forwww.gamedev.net.
game developers of all levels, from beginners to industry
veterans. According to its published numbers, over
350,000 developers from around the world take advantage of the
frequently updated developer news,
thousands of articles and tutorials, and active forums on its Web
site.
MMOGChart.com Web site: This Web site provides an
ongoing, unbiased analysis ofwww.mmogchart.com.
the numbers of people participating in MMOGs. Site author
Bruce Sterling Woodcock is an independent
MMOG consultant who has been active with MUDs and a
variety of other online communities since the early
1990s. The Web site provides detailed reports and charts that
describe and illustrate Woodcock's research
into MMOG subscription numbers and growth rates worldwide.
Terra Nova Web site: Terra Nova is a Web log that offers news
and manyhttp://terranova.blogs.com.
contributors' opinions regarding the social, economic, legal,
psychological, and political aspects of virtual
worlds.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2008 Greenhaven Press, a part of
Gale, Cengage Learning.
Source Citation:
Rifkin, Jeremy. "Electronic Interaction Is Making Americans
Less Literate." International
(11 Oct. 2006). Rpt. in Ed. AndreaHerald Tribune What is the
Impact of Cyberlife?
Demott. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Gale
Opposing Viewpoints In
. Web. 4 Aug. 2011.Context
Document URL
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/Viewpoi
ntsDetailsWindow?di
splayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prod
Id=OVIC&acti
on=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ
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de=view&userGroupName=lincclin_lcc&jsid=97a0e8169c39cea
7416d9723a65d49e4
GALE|EJ3010474211Gale Document Number:
http://www.gamedev.net
http://www.mmogchart.com
http://terranova.blogs.com
1.
2.
3.
Children Are Technologically Skilled
Techology and Society, 2007
Susan , "Has Technology Made Kids Smarter? Education and
the Tech-Savvy Child," Smith Nash XplanaZine
(Online Learning), June 2, 2006. www.xplanazine.com.
Reproduced by permission of the author.
"Tech-savvy kids are adept at managing large amounts of data
with technology ... [and] teaching
themselves how to solve problems in an interactive
environment."
In the following viewpoint, argues that children of the
Information Age areSusan Smith Nash
technologically gifted. This interaction with technology and
vast amounts of data has made young people
adept at manipulating and managing information. In addition,
being part of new communications
networks has aided children in developing useful learning and
research skills. is aSusan Smith Nash
contributing writer for , a Web-based magazine, and the
associate dean of liberal arts atXplanaZine
Excelsior College in Albany, New York.
As you read, consider the following questions:
What instructional benefits do modern video games have,
according to Nash?
In the author's view, what do tech-savvy children do with
information that is not immediately relevant to their
lives?
What failures does Nash attribute to the Baby Boomer
generation that are not shared by their modern,
tech-savvy children?
I had an interesting conversation with my son about e-learning
and social networking. He described the way the
Internet makes one think and behave differently than in times
past.
"We're smarter than your generation, Mom," he said. "We've
moved beyond that. We evolved."
Could he be right? It occurs to me that Boomer and Gen-X
parents do not quite realize that the Internet,
watching media (including films and television), and playing
video games are not the same passive activities that
they were during or Colecovision days. Video games can be
massively multi-player, soLeave It to Beaver, Pong
playing them requires a great deal of skill, and communication
ability. When they download and edit movies and
music, play games, and communicate with friends, tech-savvy
kids are problem-solving, recognizing patterns,
increasing hand-eye coordination, cataloguing events,
determining cause-effect relationships, predicting
sequences, and more.
Further, as they download music and film, they develop extreme
film and music literacy. Granted, it's not in a
form that is easily tested, and the knowledge gained here won't
make anyone a in the local No Childwunderkind
Left Behind test battery. Nevertheless, they do know how to get
the information. The trick is to turn it into
knowledge, and knowledge that can be used.
Amazing Skills of Tech-Savvy Children
This brings me back to the original question. Are kids today
smarter than my generation when we were kids?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Part of me agrees, for the following reasons:
Tech-savvy kids are adept at managing large amounts of data
with technology. They are also used to
teaching themselves how to solve problems in an interactive
environment. As James Paul Gee has
described in his book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us
about Teaching and Learning (2004), when
playing a video game, the average child learns quickly how to
do effective task analysis in a "real-time"
setting and to obtain the necessary information which is
available on-demand in order to achieve the goal.
This is a perfect example of situated, outcomes-oriented
learning, and children of this generation are
extremely skilled at it by age 6 or 7, depending on how long
they've been playing video games.
Today's generation of youth are exposed to vast quantities of
information, and they learn to manage,
classify, use, and dismiss what is not useful to them. While this
is an excellent skill it also may result in
distressingly extensive lacunae; that is to say, gigantic gaps in
knowledge. If the information is not
immediately applicable and relevant to one's life, it is ignored
or dismissed. The positive aspect of this
approach is that the average tech-savvy kid will have
encyclopedic knowledge in areas that interest him or
her. This might include audio files, "cheats" for games, movies
on DVD. On the other hand, he or she may
know little or nothing about world geography.
With the new social networking sites, tech-savvy kids are
becoming adept at social development learning,
which has been described by [developmental psychologist Lev]
Vygotsky and others. According to this
theory, people learn through social interaction, and it does not
matter whether or not it is face-to-face or
virtual. It follows, then, that kids who spend hours instant-
messaging or interacting with social networking
spaces such as myspace.com, livejournal.com, xanga.com and
others, will have experienced an accelerated
pace of learning.
Comfort with searching and finding information that helps them
achieve their objectives in a short period of
time is something to marvel at when seeing it in action. Teen-
agers are creating web-based businesses of all
sorts, and have been extremely effective at generating traffic
and revenues. They are also adept at using the
internet to solve logistical problems, and they use Mapquest,
google-earth, UPS tracking, US Postal service
(create your own stamps, etc.) with great success.
Image manipulation is not only easy for tech-savvy kids, it is
also accompanied by the awareness that each
digital image is manipulated, resulting in a worldview that does
not necessarily trust appearances.
Comparing Generations
When one considers how kids have been spending their free
time with information technology, it is no wonder
that they are bored by school. You don't have to be an "Indigo
Child" [especially gifted or advanced children] to
find a 50-minute traditional class where students sit dutifully in
hard chairs behind desks, listening to the teacher,
taking notes, then taking tests, to be utterly stultifying. It is
enough to convince a parent that homeschool or
"unschooling" [self-directed learning philosophy] could actually
be better than a structured classroom experience.
Thinking about my son's words, I try to imagine how the current
generation of teen-agers might view their
Generation X and Baby Boomer parents. The words
"narcissistic" and "self-absorbed" occur to me immediately,
as I think of the high divorce rates, the "me generation," the
"yuppies," and bizarre custody battles in which more
concern was given to the family cat and rights to the time-share
than to the kids. I do believe that he has a point.
Boomer generations can be seen as resisting the notion that
everything is always in flux, and that nothing is
permanent; thus one can never be smug or complacent. A failure
to embrace the notion of constant technological
change and upgrades sets up internal resistance to new ideas
and structures. I can see how this could lead to a
failure to communicate in any meaningful way about process
and procedures.
While a great deal of effort is expended in creating online
courses and education programs that will appeal to
adults, operating under the assumption that the adult learner
needs to have the course content presented in a
certain way for learning to take place, perhaps it is not too far-
fetched to say that the same principles apply to
1.
2.
3.
tech-savvy kids.
The specific activities required in the lessons will be different,
and the way the material is used will vary.
However, the following three learning outcomes can
accommodate both generations. Upon successful
completion of the course, the student should be able to
Make connections between unrelated and/or related items and to
support the connections with a rationale
based on close analysis of the items;
Solve problems using the material and concepts presented in the
learning module;
Engage in metacognitive tasks and develop skills such as
generalization, classification, and abstraction that
can transfer from one course to another.
In the meantime, it probably would not be a bad idea to start
putting a renewed emphasis on ethics and ethical
behavior. After all, this generation and the one after it will be
taking care of us one day.
Further Readings
Books
Ronald Bailey . Amherst, NY:Liberation Biology: The
Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution
Prometheus, 2005.
Maria Bakardjieva . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005.Internet
Society: The Internet in Everyday Life
David M. Berube . Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005.Nano-Hype:
The Truth Behind the Nanotechnology Buzz
Amy Sue Bix Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? America's
Debate over Technological Unemployment,
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.1929-1981
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid . Boston: Harvard Business
School Press,The Social Life of Information
2002.
Benjamin M. Compaine, ed. Cambridge, MA: MITThe Digital
Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth?
Press, 2001.
Larry Cuban . Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityOversold and
Underused: Computers in the Classroom
Press, 2003.
Jan A. G. M. van Dijk . Thousand Oaks, CA:The Deepening
Divide: Inequality in the Information Society
Sage, 2005.
Editors of Scientific American . New York: Warner,
2002.Understanding Nanotechnology
Francis Fukuyama . New York:Our Posthuman Future:
Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002.
Joel Garreau Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of
Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It
. New York: Doubleday, 2005.Means to Be Human
Andrea R. Gooden Computers in the Classroom: How Teachers
and Students Are Using Technology to
. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.Transform Learning
Philip E. N. Howard and Steve Jones, eds. . Thousand Oaks,
CA:Society Online: The Internet in Context
Sage, 2004.
James Hughes Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must
Respond to the Redesigned Human of the
. Cambridge, MA: Westview, 2004.Future
Institute of Medicine . Washington, DC: NationalStem Cells and
the Future of Regenerative Medicine
Academy Press, 2002.
Leon R. Kass . Washington, DC: AEILife, Liberty, and the
Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics
Press, 2004.
Ray Kurzweil . New York:The Age of Spiritual Machines: When
Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
Penguin, 2000.
Ray Kurzweil . New York: Viking, 2005.The Singularity Is
Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Jane Maienschein . Cambridge, MA: HarvardWhose View of
Life? Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells
University Press, 2003.
Maxwell J. Mehlman . Bloomington: IndianaWondergenes:
Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society
University Press, 2003.
Alondra Nelson, Thuy Linh N. Tu, and Hines Alicia Headlam,
eds. TechniColor: Race, Technology, and
. New York: New York University Press, 2001.Everyday Life
Robert D. Oberst .2020 Web Vision: How the Internet Will
Revolutionize Future Homes, Business and Society
Parkland, FL: Universal, 2001.
Todd Oppenheimer . New York:The Flickering Mind: Saving
Education from the False Promise of Technology
Random House, 2004.
Ann B. Parsons . Washington, DC: Joseph Henry,Proteus Effect:
Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine
2006.
President's Council on Bioethics Human Cloning and Human
Dignity: The Report of the President's Council
. New York: Public Affairs, 2002.on Bioethics
Mark A. Ratner and Daniel Ratner . Upper
SaddleNanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big
Idea
River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Toby Shelley . New York: Zed, 2006.Nanotechnology: New
Promises, New Dangers
Lee M. Silver .Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and
Cloning Will Transform the American Family
New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.
Mark Warschauer . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,Technology and
Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide
2004.
Brent Waters and Ronald Cole-Turner, eds. God and the
Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and
. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.Cloning
Simon Young . Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005.Designer
Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto
Periodicals
Chronicle of Higher Education "Freshmen Arrive Bearing
Gadgets and Great Expectations," September 22,
2006.
Shelia R. Cotton and Shameeka M. Jelenewicz "A Disappearing
Digital Divide Among College Students?
Peeling Away the Layers of the Digital Divide," , Winter
2006.Social Science Computer Review
Bob Doyle "Crossing the Digital Divide," , September
2006.EContent
Sue Ferguson "How Computers Make Our Kids Stupid," , June
6, 2005.Maclean's
Lisa Guernsey "When Gadgets Get in the Way," , August 19,
2004.New York Times
Wendy Haig "Bring the World Together, Online," , November 8,
2006. Business Week Online
www.businessweek.com.
Vicky Hallett "Teaching with Tech," , October 17, 2005.U.S.
News & World Report
Edward Miller "Fighting Technology for Toddlers," , November
2005.Education Digest
Peter D. Stephenson and Joan Peckham "Seeing Is Believing:
Using Computer Graphics to Enthuse
Students," , November/December 2006.IEEE Computer
Graphics & Applications
Mark Toner "Back to the Future," , May/June 2006.Teacher
Magazine
Patrick Tucker "Digitally Enhanced Teaching," , July/August
2005.Futurist
Jessica E. Vascellaro "Saying No to School Laptops," , August
31, 2006.Wall Street Journal
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale.
Source Citation:
Nash, Susan Smith. "Children Are Technologically Skilled." .
Ed.Techology and Society
David Haugen and Susan Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press,
2007. Opposing
Viewpoints. . Web. 4 Aug. 2011.Gale Opposing Viewpoints In
Context
Document URL
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/Viewpoi
ntsDetailsWindow?di
splayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prod
Id=OVIC&acti
on=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ
3010234245&mo
de=view&userGroupName=lincclin_lcc&jsid=b58ce1e14a9ce9c
e2c7a40e42b116909
GALE|EJ3010234245Gale Document Number:
http://www.businessweek.com

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  • 1. Electronic Interaction Is Making Americans Less Literate What is the Impact of Cyberlife?, 2008 Jeremy , "Virtual Companionship," , October 11, 2006. Reproduced byRifkin International Herald Tribune permission of the author. is the author of Jeremy Rifkin The Age of Access and many other books about the impact of scientific, technological, and cultural changes on the economy, society, and the environment. People all over the world are preoccupied with developing new technologies for communicating with one another, but while people are communicating more, they seem to be having more trouble expressing themselves. Furthermore, future generations seem doomed to lose emotional attachments with their fellow human beings. To help with this problem, researchers are trying to develop computerized virtual characters who can recognize human emotions and respond accordingly. Such technological pretensions are both sad and frightening. Over the past 20 years or so [since 1986], we have been preoccupied with developing new ways of communicating with each other. Our cellphones, computers, Blackberries, text messaging, e-mail and the Internet connect 25 percent of the human race in a speed-of- light global village. At the same time that we are connecting the central nervous
  • 2. system of our species in an electronic embrace, the human vocabulary is plummeting all over the world, making it more difficult to express ourselves. It appears that we are all communicating more, but saying less. Declining Literacy, Growing Loneliness According to a national survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education [DOE], English literacy among college graduates has declined dramatically in the past 10 years [since 1996]. Only 31 percent of college graduates today are proficient in English literacy, compared with 40 percent just a decade ago. Grover J. Whitehurst, the director of the DOE Institute responsible for overseeing the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, said that he believes that literacy is declining as a result of the increase in television viewing and surfing the Internet. Worse, it seems the more connected we are in our electronic landscapes, the lonelier we find ourselves. A study by the Kaiser Family Fund showed that American children now spend an average of 6.5 hours per day watching television, surfing the Internet, text messaging and playing with video games and other electronic media. More worrisome, the study found that most children interact with electronic media alone. Our children are losing the emotional attachments that come with face-to-face participation with their fellow human beings. Nor are American youngsters an anomaly. Children in other high-tech countries are following close on the heels of their American peers. This new condition can be described as the "high-tech blues." Virtual High-Tech Blues
  • 3. Are future generations to be forever lonely? No, say the technological optimists. Engineers at some of the leading technology centers are feverishly working on the next generation of technological marvels to address our lonesome high-tech existence. The field is called "affective computing" and the goal is to create technology that can express emotion, interpret and respond to the emotions of their human handlers, and even establish a sense of intimacy with their human companions. Built-in cameras allow the computers to detect even subtle changes in facial expressions, which are then processed in real time, allowing the computer to recognize the emotional state of the person. A growing number of young people find themselves enmeshed in virtual worlds where make-believe substitutes for real-life experience. Rosalind Picard, one of the pioneer researchers in the field of "affective computing," reports on a study done at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] MIT Media Lab. A computerized virtual person named "Laura" plays the role of an exercise adviser, helping real-life subjects. Laura is capable of conversing and is able to use hand gestures, eye-gaze behavior, posture shifts, head-nods and facial expressions. Laura, like any good exercise trainer, provides feedback on their performance, helps them improve on their regimen, and gives empathetic verbal and facial feedback. The reactions of the subjects are revealing. Compared with subjects interacting with a "non-relational" computer interface, a number of the subjects—but not all—working with
  • 4. Laura reported an emotional rapport similar with what one might expect with a real-life trainer. Other experiments conducted at Stanford University report similarly positive results with empathetic embodied computer agents interacting with subjects, leading researchers to conclude that "embodied computer agents are indeed social actors in the truest sense of the word 'social,' capable of forming relationships with users comparable to those found in the world of human-human interactions." It's hard to know whether to laugh off such technological pretensions as sadly pathological or whether to be truly frightened. There is no doubt that a growing number of young people find themselves enmeshed in virtual worlds where make believe subtitutes for real-life experience. With "affective computing" looming on the horizon, the truly lonely can look forward to interacting with silicon companions, programmed to empathize and even care. Progress? Surely we can do better. Further Readings Books Thor Alexander, ed. . Hingham, MA: Charles River Media, 2005.Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile, and Katherine E. Buckley Violent Video Game Effects on Children . New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy Jack M. Balkin and Beth Simone Noveck, eds. . New York:The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds
  • 5. New York University Press, 2006. Richard A. Bartle . Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing, 2004.Designing Virtual Worlds John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade .Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004. David Bell, Brian D. Loader, Nicholas Pleace and Douglas Schuler, eds. .Cyberculture: The Key Concepts New York: Routledge, 2004. Brenda Brathwaite . Boston, MA: Charles River Media, 2007.Sex in Video Games Paul Carr and Graham Pond . New York: St. Martin's Press,The Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life 2007. Edward Castronova . New York: PalgraveExodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality Macmillan, 2007. Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the . Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2005.Videogame Revolution Robbie Cooper, Julian Dibbell, and Tracy Spaight . London, U.K.: ChrisAlter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators Boot, 2007. Julian Dibbell . New York:Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day
  • 6. Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot Basic Books, 2006. James Paul Gee . New York: PalgraveWhat Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy Macmillan, 2003. Henry Jenkins . New York: New York UniversityFans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture Press, 2006. Steven Johnson Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us . New York: Riverhead Books, 2005.Smarter R. V. Kelly II Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: The People, the Addiction and the Playing . Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004.Experience Brad King and John Borland Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to . Emeryville, CA: McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003.Chic Raph Koster . Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press, 2005.A Theory of Fun for Game Design David Kushner . NewMasters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture York: Random House, 2003. Marc Prensky "Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning!": How Computer and Video Games Are Preparing Your . St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2006.Kids for Twenty-First Century Success and How You Can Help Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds. . Cambridge, MA:
  • 7. MITHandbook of Computer Game Studies Press, 2005. Michael Rymaszewski, et al. . Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, 2007.Second Life: The Official Guide Ralph Schroeder and Ann-Sofie Axelsson, eds. Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in . Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006.Shared Virtual Environments David Williamson Shaffer . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.How Computer Games Help Children Learn John Suler , revised version, 2007. The Psychology of Cyberspace www-usr.rider.edu/ ~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html. Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, eds. . New York: Routledge, 2003.The Video Game Theory Reader Periodicals Susan Arendt "Doctor Urges AMA to Recognize Game Addiction as a Disorder," , June 14, 2007.Wired http://www-usr.rider.edu/ Alicia Ault "Turn On, Tune Out, Get Well?" , October 4, 2005.Washington Post Jack Balkin "Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds," ,Virginia Law Review 2005. Celeste Biever "The Irresistible Rise of Cybersex: From Full-on
  • 8. Encounters to Online Dating with a Twist, Simulated Sex is on the Up in Mainstream Gaming," , June 17, 2006.New Scientist Kyle Brazzel "Multiplayer Mania: In Some Circles, Tragic Headlines Have Sparked Alarms About 'Addiction' to Online Video Games," , March 28, 2007.Arkansas Democrat- Gazette Leslie Brody "Can You Be a Video-Game 'Addict'?" , August 19, 2006.Seattle Times John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas "You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!" , April 1, 2006.Wired Business Wire "Gartner Says 80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have a 'Second Life' in the Virtual World by the End of 2011," April 24, 2007. Edward Castronova "On Virtual Economies," , December 2003.Game Studies Marcus D. Childress and Ray Braswell "Using Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games for Online Learning," , August 2006.Distance Education Current Events "Living a Second Life: Virtual Worlds Create New Reality," January 22, 2007. Sara de Freitas and Mark Griffiths "Online Gaming as an Educational Tool in Learning and Training," British , June 2007.Journal of Educational Technology Julian Dibbell "The Unreal Estate Boom," , January 1, 2003.Wired
  • 9. Economist "A Model Economy," January 22, 2005. Economist "Breeding Evil? The Real Impact of Video Games," August 6, 2005. Anthony Faiola "When Escape Seems Just a Mouse-Click Away: Stress-Driven Addiction to Online Games Spikes in South Korea," , May 27, 2006.Washington Post Allison Fass "Sex, Pranks, and Reality," , February 7, 2007.Forbes Alison George "Striking Out for the New Territory," , October 21, 2006.New Scientist Mark D. Griffiths, Mark N. O. Davies, and Darren Chappell "Breaking the Stereotype: The Case of Online Gaming," , November 2003.CyberPsychology & Behavior Cathy Lynn Grossman "Net Faithful Find Second Life," , April 2, 2007.USA Today Paul Ryan Hiebert "Games for People Who Want to Change the World," ,Canadian Dimension November-December 2006. Becky Hogge "Virtually the Same as Normal: Many Are Turning to Second Life Just as It Starts to Mirror the Real World," , October 30, 2006.New Statesman Moon Ihlwan "South Korea: Video Games' Crazed Capital," , March 26, 2007.Business Week James D. Ivory "Still a Man's Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games," Mass , Winter 2006.Communication and Society
  • 10. David R. Johnson "How Online Games May Change the Law and Legally Significant Institutions," New York , 2004-2005.Law School Review F. Gregory Lastowka and Dan Hunter "The Laws of the Virtual Worlds," University of Pennsylvania Law School Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series, May 2003. Carrie Levine "Schools, Libraries Finding Second Life in Second Life: Groups Test Waters of Online 'Metaverse'," , February 10, 2007.Charlotte Observer Steven Levy, et al. "Living a Virtual Life," , September 18, 2006.Newsweek David Lipke "Big Game Hunters," , February 12, 2007.Daily News Record Regina Lynn "Second Life Gets Sexier," , August 25, 2006.Wired Michel Marriott "We Have to Operate, but Let's Play First," , February 24, 2005.New York Times PC Advisor Staff "Three Minutes With: Second Life Exec," , April 21, 2007.PC World lvars Peterson "Games Theory: Online Play Can Help Researchers Tackle Tough Computational Problems," , March 17, 2007.Science News
  • 11. Jonathan Rauch "Sex, Lies, and Video Games," , November 2006.Atlantic Monthly Cynthia Reynolds "Videogame Widows," , January 16, 2006.Maclean's Bonnie Ruberg "Sex in Games: It's a Turn-On," , June 13, 2006.Wired Richard Siklos "A Virtual World but Real Money," , October 19, 2006.New York Times Mike Snider "Video Games Actually Can Be Good for You," , September 27, 2005.USA Today Joel Stein "My So-Called Second Life," , December 16, 2006.Time Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler "Meet the Gamers: They Research, Teach, Learn, and Collaborate. So Far, Without Libraries," , April 2005.Library Journal Chris Suellentrop "Playing with Our Minds," , Summer 2006.Wilson Quarterly Aimee Tompkins "The Psychological Effects of Violent Media on Children," , December 14,AllPsych Journal 2003. Monica T. Whitty "Pushing the Wrong Buttons: Men's and Women's Attitudes Toward Online and Offline Infidelity," , December 2003.CyberPsychology and Behavior Dmitri Williams "Excessive Online Gaming," , August 18, 2006.Washington Post
  • 12. Dmitri Williams "Groups and Goblins: The Social and Civic Impact of an Online Game," Journal of , December 2006.Broadcasting & Electronic Media Dmitri Williams and Marko Skoric "lnternet Fantasy Violence: A Test of Aggression in an Online Game," , June 2005.Communication Monographs Wylie Wong "Gaming in Education," , May-June 2007.EdTech Nick Yee "The Labor of Fun," , January 2006.Games and Culture Internet Resources Andrea Lynn "No Strong Link Seen Between Violent Video Games and Aggression," ,www.physorg.com August 11, 2005. Grace Wong "Educators Explore 'Second Life' Online," , November 14, 2006.www.cnn.com Web Sites The Daedalus Project Web site: The Daedalus Project is an ongoing study ofwww.nickyee.com/daedalus. http://www.physorg.com http://www.cnn.com http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus the psychology of more than 40,000 MMORPG players directed by Stanford University researcher Nick Yee, an expert on online games and immersive virtual reality. An extensive library of Yee's reports on the results of his research and a lexicon of MMORPG terms and abbreviations are available at this site.
  • 13. GameDev.net Web site: GameDev.net claims to be the leading online community forwww.gamedev.net. game developers of all levels, from beginners to industry veterans. According to its published numbers, over 350,000 developers from around the world take advantage of the frequently updated developer news, thousands of articles and tutorials, and active forums on its Web site. MMOGChart.com Web site: This Web site provides an ongoing, unbiased analysis ofwww.mmogchart.com. the numbers of people participating in MMOGs. Site author Bruce Sterling Woodcock is an independent MMOG consultant who has been active with MUDs and a variety of other online communities since the early 1990s. The Web site provides detailed reports and charts that describe and illustrate Woodcock's research into MMOG subscription numbers and growth rates worldwide. Terra Nova Web site: Terra Nova is a Web log that offers news and manyhttp://terranova.blogs.com. contributors' opinions regarding the social, economic, legal, psychological, and political aspects of virtual worlds. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2008 Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. Source Citation: Rifkin, Jeremy. "Electronic Interaction Is Making Americans Less Literate." International (11 Oct. 2006). Rpt. in Ed. AndreaHerald Tribune What is the Impact of Cyberlife? Demott. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Gale
  • 14. Opposing Viewpoints In . Web. 4 Aug. 2011.Context Document URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/Viewpoi ntsDetailsWindow?di splayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prod Id=OVIC&acti on=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ 3010474211&mo de=view&userGroupName=lincclin_lcc&jsid=97a0e8169c39cea 7416d9723a65d49e4 GALE|EJ3010474211Gale Document Number: http://www.gamedev.net http://www.mmogchart.com http://terranova.blogs.com 1. 2. 3. Children Are Technologically Skilled Techology and Society, 2007 Susan , "Has Technology Made Kids Smarter? Education and the Tech-Savvy Child," Smith Nash XplanaZine (Online Learning), June 2, 2006. www.xplanazine.com. Reproduced by permission of the author. "Tech-savvy kids are adept at managing large amounts of data
  • 15. with technology ... [and] teaching themselves how to solve problems in an interactive environment." In the following viewpoint, argues that children of the Information Age areSusan Smith Nash technologically gifted. This interaction with technology and vast amounts of data has made young people adept at manipulating and managing information. In addition, being part of new communications networks has aided children in developing useful learning and research skills. is aSusan Smith Nash contributing writer for , a Web-based magazine, and the associate dean of liberal arts atXplanaZine Excelsior College in Albany, New York. As you read, consider the following questions: What instructional benefits do modern video games have, according to Nash? In the author's view, what do tech-savvy children do with information that is not immediately relevant to their lives? What failures does Nash attribute to the Baby Boomer generation that are not shared by their modern, tech-savvy children? I had an interesting conversation with my son about e-learning and social networking. He described the way the Internet makes one think and behave differently than in times past. "We're smarter than your generation, Mom," he said. "We've moved beyond that. We evolved."
  • 16. Could he be right? It occurs to me that Boomer and Gen-X parents do not quite realize that the Internet, watching media (including films and television), and playing video games are not the same passive activities that they were during or Colecovision days. Video games can be massively multi-player, soLeave It to Beaver, Pong playing them requires a great deal of skill, and communication ability. When they download and edit movies and music, play games, and communicate with friends, tech-savvy kids are problem-solving, recognizing patterns, increasing hand-eye coordination, cataloguing events, determining cause-effect relationships, predicting sequences, and more. Further, as they download music and film, they develop extreme film and music literacy. Granted, it's not in a form that is easily tested, and the knowledge gained here won't make anyone a in the local No Childwunderkind Left Behind test battery. Nevertheless, they do know how to get the information. The trick is to turn it into knowledge, and knowledge that can be used. Amazing Skills of Tech-Savvy Children This brings me back to the original question. Are kids today smarter than my generation when we were kids? 1. 2. 3.
  • 17. 4. 5. Part of me agrees, for the following reasons: Tech-savvy kids are adept at managing large amounts of data with technology. They are also used to teaching themselves how to solve problems in an interactive environment. As James Paul Gee has described in his book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Teaching and Learning (2004), when playing a video game, the average child learns quickly how to do effective task analysis in a "real-time" setting and to obtain the necessary information which is available on-demand in order to achieve the goal. This is a perfect example of situated, outcomes-oriented learning, and children of this generation are extremely skilled at it by age 6 or 7, depending on how long they've been playing video games. Today's generation of youth are exposed to vast quantities of information, and they learn to manage, classify, use, and dismiss what is not useful to them. While this is an excellent skill it also may result in distressingly extensive lacunae; that is to say, gigantic gaps in knowledge. If the information is not immediately applicable and relevant to one's life, it is ignored or dismissed. The positive aspect of this approach is that the average tech-savvy kid will have encyclopedic knowledge in areas that interest him or her. This might include audio files, "cheats" for games, movies on DVD. On the other hand, he or she may know little or nothing about world geography. With the new social networking sites, tech-savvy kids are
  • 18. becoming adept at social development learning, which has been described by [developmental psychologist Lev] Vygotsky and others. According to this theory, people learn through social interaction, and it does not matter whether or not it is face-to-face or virtual. It follows, then, that kids who spend hours instant- messaging or interacting with social networking spaces such as myspace.com, livejournal.com, xanga.com and others, will have experienced an accelerated pace of learning. Comfort with searching and finding information that helps them achieve their objectives in a short period of time is something to marvel at when seeing it in action. Teen- agers are creating web-based businesses of all sorts, and have been extremely effective at generating traffic and revenues. They are also adept at using the internet to solve logistical problems, and they use Mapquest, google-earth, UPS tracking, US Postal service (create your own stamps, etc.) with great success. Image manipulation is not only easy for tech-savvy kids, it is also accompanied by the awareness that each digital image is manipulated, resulting in a worldview that does not necessarily trust appearances. Comparing Generations When one considers how kids have been spending their free time with information technology, it is no wonder that they are bored by school. You don't have to be an "Indigo Child" [especially gifted or advanced children] to find a 50-minute traditional class where students sit dutifully in hard chairs behind desks, listening to the teacher, taking notes, then taking tests, to be utterly stultifying. It is enough to convince a parent that homeschool or
  • 19. "unschooling" [self-directed learning philosophy] could actually be better than a structured classroom experience. Thinking about my son's words, I try to imagine how the current generation of teen-agers might view their Generation X and Baby Boomer parents. The words "narcissistic" and "self-absorbed" occur to me immediately, as I think of the high divorce rates, the "me generation," the "yuppies," and bizarre custody battles in which more concern was given to the family cat and rights to the time-share than to the kids. I do believe that he has a point. Boomer generations can be seen as resisting the notion that everything is always in flux, and that nothing is permanent; thus one can never be smug or complacent. A failure to embrace the notion of constant technological change and upgrades sets up internal resistance to new ideas and structures. I can see how this could lead to a failure to communicate in any meaningful way about process and procedures. While a great deal of effort is expended in creating online courses and education programs that will appeal to adults, operating under the assumption that the adult learner needs to have the course content presented in a certain way for learning to take place, perhaps it is not too far- fetched to say that the same principles apply to 1. 2. 3. tech-savvy kids.
  • 20. The specific activities required in the lessons will be different, and the way the material is used will vary. However, the following three learning outcomes can accommodate both generations. Upon successful completion of the course, the student should be able to Make connections between unrelated and/or related items and to support the connections with a rationale based on close analysis of the items; Solve problems using the material and concepts presented in the learning module; Engage in metacognitive tasks and develop skills such as generalization, classification, and abstraction that can transfer from one course to another. In the meantime, it probably would not be a bad idea to start putting a renewed emphasis on ethics and ethical behavior. After all, this generation and the one after it will be taking care of us one day. Further Readings Books Ronald Bailey . Amherst, NY:Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution Prometheus, 2005. Maria Bakardjieva . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005.Internet Society: The Internet in Everyday Life David M. Berube . Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005.Nano-Hype: The Truth Behind the Nanotechnology Buzz
  • 21. Amy Sue Bix Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? America's Debate over Technological Unemployment, . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.1929-1981 John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid . Boston: Harvard Business School Press,The Social Life of Information 2002. Benjamin M. Compaine, ed. Cambridge, MA: MITThe Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth? Press, 2001. Larry Cuban . Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityOversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom Press, 2003. Jan A. G. M. van Dijk . Thousand Oaks, CA:The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society Sage, 2005. Editors of Scientific American . New York: Warner, 2002.Understanding Nanotechnology Francis Fukuyama . New York:Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002. Joel Garreau Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It . New York: Doubleday, 2005.Means to Be Human Andrea R. Gooden Computers in the Classroom: How Teachers and Students Are Using Technology to . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.Transform Learning Philip E. N. Howard and Steve Jones, eds. . Thousand Oaks,
  • 22. CA:Society Online: The Internet in Context Sage, 2004. James Hughes Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the . Cambridge, MA: Westview, 2004.Future Institute of Medicine . Washington, DC: NationalStem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine Academy Press, 2002. Leon R. Kass . Washington, DC: AEILife, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics Press, 2004. Ray Kurzweil . New York:The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence Penguin, 2000. Ray Kurzweil . New York: Viking, 2005.The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology Jane Maienschein . Cambridge, MA: HarvardWhose View of Life? Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells University Press, 2003. Maxwell J. Mehlman . Bloomington: IndianaWondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society University Press, 2003. Alondra Nelson, Thuy Linh N. Tu, and Hines Alicia Headlam, eds. TechniColor: Race, Technology, and . New York: New York University Press, 2001.Everyday Life
  • 23. Robert D. Oberst .2020 Web Vision: How the Internet Will Revolutionize Future Homes, Business and Society Parkland, FL: Universal, 2001. Todd Oppenheimer . New York:The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology Random House, 2004. Ann B. Parsons . Washington, DC: Joseph Henry,Proteus Effect: Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine 2006. President's Council on Bioethics Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council . New York: Public Affairs, 2002.on Bioethics Mark A. Ratner and Daniel Ratner . Upper SaddleNanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. Toby Shelley . New York: Zed, 2006.Nanotechnology: New Promises, New Dangers Lee M. Silver .Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family New York: HarperPerennial, 1998. Mark Warschauer . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide 2004. Brent Waters and Ronald Cole-Turner, eds. God and the Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and . Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.Cloning
  • 24. Simon Young . Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005.Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto Periodicals Chronicle of Higher Education "Freshmen Arrive Bearing Gadgets and Great Expectations," September 22, 2006. Shelia R. Cotton and Shameeka M. Jelenewicz "A Disappearing Digital Divide Among College Students? Peeling Away the Layers of the Digital Divide," , Winter 2006.Social Science Computer Review Bob Doyle "Crossing the Digital Divide," , September 2006.EContent Sue Ferguson "How Computers Make Our Kids Stupid," , June 6, 2005.Maclean's Lisa Guernsey "When Gadgets Get in the Way," , August 19, 2004.New York Times Wendy Haig "Bring the World Together, Online," , November 8, 2006. Business Week Online www.businessweek.com. Vicky Hallett "Teaching with Tech," , October 17, 2005.U.S. News & World Report Edward Miller "Fighting Technology for Toddlers," , November 2005.Education Digest Peter D. Stephenson and Joan Peckham "Seeing Is Believing:
  • 25. Using Computer Graphics to Enthuse Students," , November/December 2006.IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications Mark Toner "Back to the Future," , May/June 2006.Teacher Magazine Patrick Tucker "Digitally Enhanced Teaching," , July/August 2005.Futurist Jessica E. Vascellaro "Saying No to School Laptops," , August 31, 2006.Wall Street Journal Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale. Source Citation: Nash, Susan Smith. "Children Are Technologically Skilled." . Ed.Techology and Society David Haugen and Susan Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. . Web. 4 Aug. 2011.Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context Document URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/Viewpoi ntsDetailsWindow?di splayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prod Id=OVIC&acti on=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ 3010234245&mo de=view&userGroupName=lincclin_lcc&jsid=b58ce1e14a9ce9c e2c7a40e42b116909 GALE|EJ3010234245Gale Document Number: