Link This |
Email this |
Blog This |
Comments (2)
Expertise -- Teenagers On the Internet
November 20, 2008
Today's Times Brings an Article That Links, and Comments On, My Last Two Posts
www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/us/20internet.html The article describes a study of how teenagers use the social networking of the internet: the horizontal now I described. But it also concludes that this activity is not as dangerous (in terms of predators) as parents might fear, and that teenagers also seek out, and respect, each other's knowledge. In other words, in their world of the continual digital present, they see individuals and communities who have gone from being pioneers to guides -- those who have researched, studied, learned, and mapped out some territory. You might call those individuals now plus -- they are part of the digital connected present, but their value to other teenagers is not just that they are available but that they have become experts, resources to count on.
This reminds me so much of the idea of "expterise" that Kieran Egan www.educ.sfu.ca/kegan/ often describes. The challenge to us adults is to be mentors and facilitators as teenager develop, and then seek out, expertise.
Your thoughts?
Posted by Marc Aronson on November 20, 2008 | Comments (2)
