DIGITAL
CULTURE
&
EDUCATION,
6(1)
Copyright
©
2014,
ISSN
1836-‐8301
Digital Culture & Education (DCE)
Publication details, including instructions for
authors http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/
Exploiting fluencies: Educational
expropriation of social networking
site consumer training
Lucinda Rush* and D.E. Wittkower**
*Old Dominion University Libraries & **Old
Dominion University Department of Philosophy
Online Publication Date: 30 April 2014
To cite this Article: Rush, L., & Wittkower, D.E. (2014). Exploiting fluencies: Educational expropriation of
social networking site consumer training. Digital Culture & Education, 6:1, 13-29.
URL: http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/rush.pdf
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Exploiting
fluencies
13
EXPLOITING FLUENCIES: EDUCATIONAL
EXPROPRIATION OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE
CONSUMER TRAINING
Lucinda Rush and D.E. Wittkower
Abstract
The idea of the digital native was based on abstraction; when we look in detail at the digital activities of
high-school and college students, we see deskilling and consumer training rather than information literacy
or technical fluency. Yet that training is still training, and may be adaptable in such a way that it can
become a literacy—in, for example, the way militaries have mobilised skill-sets produced through
gaming. We too can and should mine the narrow and profit-driven consumer training that emerging
adults have undergone for kinds of inquiry and critical engagement for which they may have
inadvertently been given tools and training. In this article, we will analyse the structures of Facebook to
see what sorts of consumer training it produces, and suggest avenues for the educational expropriation of
that training. First, we take an inventory of categories of consumer training, analysing each and
identifying exploitable elements within each. Following this, we suggest activities and assessment
structures exapting these literacies and habits to educational ends. Many of these structures involve direct
employment of Facebook in coursework, but others identify assignments, projects, and approaches which
draw upon SNS consumer training but do not themselves employ Facebook.
Keywords: Facebook, instructional design, phenomenology, consumer
training, pedagogy
The myth of digital nativity
The term digital native was first coined by Marc Prensky in a 2001 edition of On the
Horizon. He defined digital natives as people who have spent their lives engaged in
technologies such as computers, video games, the internet, and mobile phones. Their
exact birth year varies among scholars, but in general these are kids who were born after
1980. In 2001, Prensky pointed out research that indicates that as a result of this lifelong
immersion in technology, the brain structure and thinking patterns of digital natives is
quite different from the digital immigrants (those born prior to the technology
explosion). In 2009 edition of Innovate, Prensky readdressed his 2001 publication,
suggesting that as we progress further into the 21st century, the line between digital
natives and digital immigrants becomes more blurred, and that we should focus our
attention on what he labels as digital wisdom. “Digital wisdom is a twofold concept,
referring both to wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive
power beyond our innate capacity and to wisdom in the prudent use of technology to
enhance our capabilities” (Prensky, 2009, p. 1).
Since the Prensky (2001) article, there have been a great many discussions and
debates surrounding the idea of the digital native. Digital natives cannot be determined
by their birth year alone. Children born in developing countries, where even electricity is
Rush
and
Wittkower
14
scarce cannot be considered digital natives. But even in wealthy countries, where
children have access to technologies, there is a divide between those who use them
effectively and those who do not (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). Hargittai (2010) pointed out
that while 81.2% students whose parents are considered highly educated own personal
laptops, only 55.1% of students whose parents have less than a high school education
own a laptop, and that parental education also plays a role in the skill level of the
student. Hargittai and Hinnant’s (2008) study tells us that college students who have
daily access to the internet vary in knowledge based on their socioeconomic status,
parental education, race, and gender. University students come to us from all types of
backgrounds, some are digitally literate, but many are not.
Even among those of the ‘digitally native generation’ who are digital natives, though,
the idea that digital nativity would itself automatically imply digital literacy/fluency,
information literacy/fluency, or digital wisdom, is based on too simplistic an
understanding of the cognitive and behavioural environment to which “digital natives”
are native. “The digital” is not a single thing, and the digital landscape is not uniform.
Skills developed in one sort of digital environment or practice may not be more broadly
applicable. Even the phrase “digital native” is, in this way, a kind of fallacious
equivocation, implying transitivity of skills and understanding across radically disparate
kinds of activity. The digital native’s familiarity with seeking out information on Google
in no way implies her familiarity with search engine algorithms, metadata, or the
assessment of online sources; the digital native’s relative comfort in maintaining
personal relationships online does not translate into fluency in maintaining privacy on
social networking sites (SNS).
Now, to be sure, there are some general truisms about life online that cut across a
great swath of the everyday practices of digital natives, and these truisms can help us
reform our pedagogy. We need to teach students the way that they can learn, not in the
traditional ways that we and prior generations learned in the past. Generation Y
emerging adults, or Millennials as they are often called, prefer fast, parallel learning.
They are multi-taskers, and it is rare to find one who prefers working in silence. “Unlike
most digital immigrants, digital natives live much of their lives online, without
distinguishing between the online and offline” (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008, p. 4). They
prefer to participate actively in their learning process. “Kids who have grown up digital
expect to talk back, to have a conversation” (Tapscott, 2009, p. 126). Tapscott (2009)
points out that in the United States today, we generally follow the Industrial Age mode
of pedagogy, and this is not effective for Millennials who are used to fast paced
environments and must be prepared to become lifelong learners. Universities have tried
to keep up with new and changing technologies by doing things like giving all students a
laptop, installing Smart Boards in every classroom, providing wireless internet access at
every location, and making equipment like iPads, cameras, and e-readers available for
students and faculty to borrow, although practices of effective use have sometimes
lagged behind the availability of these resources.
Access to the internet has drastically changed the way that we find and use
information. Digital natives are “grazers,” who do not sit and read the newspaper from
cover to cover each day, but read bits of information from various sources throughout
the day and night (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). They interact with the information much
more than digital immigrants, by participating in online discussions, blogs, posting on
Facebook and Twitter. In 2008, Barack Obama employed Chris Hughes to organise his
online presence. “Obama had by far the largest Internet presence of the candidates”
(Tapscott, 2009, p. 252). The campaign changed the way that Millennials, who were
described by Mark Bauerlein (2008) as “the dumbest generation,” participate in politics.
It is quite possible that they are actually learning and engaging with information more
Exploiting
fluencies
15
than digital immigrants, when the information is presented to them in a way that is
innate to them (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).
This is all quite valuable. In addition to drawing on these most generic informational
habits inculcated by life online, though, we can also take a more focused look at the
specific environments to which “digital natives” are native, in order to see what specific
literacies and fluencies have been developed and fine-tuned prior to their arrival in our
classrooms. By doing so, we may be able to identify new cognitive ‘strong points’ to
draw upon in our coursework.
Consumer training and Millennials
One barrier to proper appreciation of the meaning of digital nativity has been the focus
on the importance of developing informational habits within a digital environment to the
exclusion of recognition of the importance of developing informational habits within a
market environment. In our online informational lives we represent constant sources of
profit through advertising microtransactions, and online environments are often
strongly determined by market forces. The fluencies developed among digital natives,
then, are likely to be those that best support the profitability of the private interests at
work in the digital environments to which they are native. We might call this “consumer
training,” since it’s a purposeful development of habits of use which maximise the value
of the user qua consumer to the corporation that owns the informational environment
in question. We expect, then, that digital natives will be fluent in sharing and building
relationships, but not as fluent in navigating privacy settings; that they will be very
capable of finding appealing information for a given Google search, but not that they
should be well aware of or comfortable considering how Google determines which
results to display, distinguishing between ‘sponsored result