Tapscott's Eight Net Gen Norms

The eight norms of Net Gen according to Tapscott are freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation.  These are all things that the Net Gen expects from today's technology.  The first norm, freedom, could be simply described as the numerous choices technology and the internet have given us.  Growing up in this generation has allowed us to choose what we want, when we want, and how we want.  The second is customization. Customization in the Net Gen applies to every person.  Whenever we get a new phone, the first thing we do is change the background.  Instead of using technology to work, we make technology work for us.  All the technology we own is customized, from personal ring tones to backgrounds.  The whole point of social networking sites now is to personalize your profile and page to represent yourself to other people. Next up is scrutiny. The Net Gen people have learned to be skeptical when taking in information. We've had to learn to decipher whats real and what's not. There are too many false sources and scammers on the internet to not scrutinize. After that is integrity. With all the information in the world that the Net Genners have been introduced to, it's hard for us not to care. Integrity includes honesty, consideration, and abiding by commitments.  With everything that's currently going on in the world that we've been exposed to through technology, we feel like it's our duty to do something. The next norm is collaboration. Collaboration for the Net Gen is simply coming together to share ideas. Entertainment for our generation is huge. It's probably the reason we use technology ninety percent of the time. Speed is a norm that the Net Genners are really intent on having. A slow internet connection is the WORST thing in the world. We want our information, music, and games instantly and we get impatient and frustrated if that's not the case. Innovation is the last norm. Cooler, faster, and more advanced technological devices are constantly replacing the ones we have now. Sometimes a new version of a phone will be out before you even have a chance to get the original. These norms are really dead on. Our generation is completely dependent and entangled in technology.  We expect these things when using technology.

Blog Deadlines

Blog deadlines weren't really enforced too harshly for this project. It kinda tested students ability to meet deadlines and finish homework on their own.  The deadlines were flexible since you still took credit for late work.  I think when homework is online students don't feel the urgency to do it and turn it in on time, instead of if it was a physical piece of paper to turn in.  Not being able to have it in your possession takes the reality aspect out of it. I personally prefer more of the traditional form of homework.  That's just a personal preference though.

Using Digital Communication Tools To Present Digital Communication Tools

Using digital communication tools to present digital communication tools sounds a little repetitive.  Examples would be using youtube to show how to use youtube.  It sounds dumb, but if i were to go to youtube, type in 'how to use youtube', and hit enter; a video on how to navigate youtube would come up.  Therefore, I'd be using a digital communication tool to present digital communication tools.  This relates to our wikispaces project.  We used a digital communication tool, wiki, to present information on other digital communication tools that we researched.  So not only are we all learning about digital communication tools by reading everyone's page, but we're also teaching ourselves how to use digital communication tools by using the wikis to relay this information.  I just came to this conclusion while writing this blog. Mr. Langley is a tricky man.

Accepting Criticism

Accepting criticism is important while writing blogs.  Reading how your peers viewed your opinions and ideas lets you see how you come off to other people.  Sometimes people may misinterpret what your saying because you worded it a certain way.  Reading criticism allows you to go back and maybe reword your blogs to have them portray the idea you wanted to.  Criticism also allows you to improve your blogs.  I read the criticism on my blogs and went back and added more information to help the people reading better understand.  Accepting criticism in a good way will improve your writings, but taking offense will not.  If you take constructive criticism defensively it might cause you to lash out in your other writings.  This makes it no fun for anyone to read your blogs.  That's my take on accepting criticism.

Using Wiki to Communicate Information

Wiki is defined as a website that allows the creation and editing of interlinked web pages.  Wikis are mostly used for collaborative works.  It allows people to sign in and be invited to join groups to edit pages.  This could be a useful tool in schools and the work place, allowing multiple peoples ideas to be put in one place.  A good aspect of Wiki is that people can build on other people's ideas.  This means that the ideas on the page have been molded into a well thought through and well edited opinions or research.  Wiki is a tool that should be taken advantage of in schools and the work place to collaborate on ideas.  There is something out there though called WikiLeaks.  WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes confidential or private information it gets from anonymous news sources.  WikiLeaks has caught grief from government officials for releasing classified information that could have jeopardized national security.  In April of this last year they released a video of U.S soldiers killing Iraqi civilians and journalists.

Diigo

Diigo is a website that allows you to bookmark and tag pages on websites.This is a tool for researching.  It allows you to keep all your sources and information in the same place. Diigo stands for Digestion of Internet Information, Groups, and Other Stuff.  Not only does it keep all of your information in one place, but you can be a part of a group and share bookmarks with group members.  Using Diigo in the classroom helps keep students organized while doing projects, or in our case speeches.  Instead of having to try to find your information five different times to look up stuff for your speech, students can just go to Diigo and check their bookmarks and easily find the information they're looking for.  This saves time and effort and also makes researching ten times easier.

Communicating Digitally

Communicating digitally is part of American's daily lives.  It is extremely essential to the way we communicate at work, school, and in our home lives.  Facebook is currently the most popular way of communicating digitally, with more than 400 million users.  Students use technology on a daily basis outside of school to keep in touch with their peers.  This use should make using technology to communicate in the classroom second nature.  Most students have multiple email accounts, profiles on multiple social networking sites, and have used sites to talk with other people world wide.  Bringing digital communication tools in the classroom will hopefully bring education out of the stone age of chalk boards and books, and into the future of laptop based courses.  Instead of using books and written homework assignments, all homework done on computers and then emailed to teachers would be communicating digitally.  Maybe more students would be more interested in completing homework assignments since they will already be on their computer at home on a social network site.