Assignment 2: Literacy, Fluency and Competency (NEEDS HYPERLINKS AND CONCLUSION)

Digital Literacy, Fluency and Competency: Connections in a rural setting

            The Copper Country: rich in history and natural beauty, low in technological access. Students attending colleges like Michigan Tech feel a constant urge to be connected through their smartphone, tablet, laptop or other device. Having grown accustomed to the changes in the technological sphere, they don’t even flinch when something new comes along; they adapt to it with ease because of the knowledge they already have. How does one react when those technologies are hard to access?

            Consider this: you are a student coming from a populated area (say a suburb of Detroit or other large city) attending Michigan Tech. With cell phone and laptop in your backpack, you make the move up to Houghton, only to find that cell coverage is spotty and internet and Wi-Fi access only reach certain parts of the area. Do you feel angry, frustrated or anxious? All of the above? I would like to argue that because of the rural area in which Michigan Tech is situated in, students feel a greater need to be connected.

For this research paper and in order to answer these questions firsthand, I conducted a survey of students on campus. The following questions were asked to four male and four female students from out of the area, ages 19-22, who participated.

1.    How does the access to the internet/cell phone coverage differ here at Michigan Tech/Houghton than from where you are from?

2.    Do you have a smartphone, laptop, tablet or other mobile device that you feel keeps you connected?

3.    When was a time when you felt disconnected from the rest of the world because of a lack of technological access, internet or cell phone service?

4.    How do you feel when you are experiencing “technological difficulties” on campus or at home? What types of things run through your mind?

5.    How would you describe a “Digital Native”?

To start, every student expressed disgust with the internet access and cell phone coverage available. Many responses included the word ‘consistency’ and the fact that this area does not offer many providers for service. Each student stated that they have a smartphone, laptop or other device that keeps them connected and when that device isn’t working, they feel “frustrated… upset and angry…distraught… annoyed…” and even like he “wants to throw [his] computer out the window.” 

I think that if I would have asked the entire student population on campus these questions, the feelings expressed would have been similar if not the same. This generation, many of which were born after 1988, are “Digital Natives”. In Born Digital by Palfrey and Gasser, a digital native is described as someone whose “Major aspects of their lives—social interactions, friendships, civic activities—are mediated by digital technologies.” They just don’t know anything else. 

To contrast with the students responses, I also looked at some of my personal observances in my daily life regarding an older generation or those people who wouldn’t be associated with the term “digital native”. My mom, for example, does not have a cell phone and just recently acquired internet access and a computer. My grandparents do not have a computer or cell phones. Those of older generations do not feel as strong of an urge to be constantly connected because they were not born into the age of technology or they may not be comfortable with using the technologies, as Kate Williams explains in Literacy and Computer Literacy. Students, or the digital natives, however, are able to adapt to the fast-paced and ever changing world of technology they live in. Again, these students don’t know anything else from a technological world in which they’ve grown up in.

The final aspect of this I would like to look at is how technologies become such a large part of our lives that we form a bond with them as though they are a part of us.  Digital Natives in today’s world seem to always carry their cell phones or other devices with them, tapping away at the touch screens or keys. Through this technology is they interact with their friends and sometimes their family, conduct homework and reach a majority of their entertainment such as Facebook and Netflix.

Because a vast majority of our time is spent in online spaces, we become one with them, expressing ourselves in that space and showing the world who we are (or are not, for that matter). Access to those technologies and the necessary components to run them are scarce in the Houghton area… causing students much frustration, as stated in the survey. An online identity is created and must be obtained.

Works Cited

1.    "Coverage Map in Houghton, MI." Cell Reception. Web. 08 Oct 2012. <http://www.cellreception.com/coverage/mi/houghton/page1.html>.

2.    Horrigan, John. "Home Broadband Adoption 2009." Pew Internet. Pew Internet Web. 10 Oct 2012. <http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/10-Home-Broadband-Adoption-2009/1-Summary-of-findings.asp&xgt;

3.    Palfey, John, and Urs Gasser. Born Digital. 1st ed. Basic Books, 2010. 1-14. Print.

4.    Waara, Katelyn. Personal survey of students

5.    Williams, Kate. Literacy and computer literacy ‘Analyzing the NRC’s ‘Being Fluent with Information Technology’. Journal of Literacy and Technology, volume 3, number 1, Spring 2003.