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What is the Digital Divide?

When we think of inequality the first things that come to mind are traditional forms of inequality: class, race, gender, health etc. However a new emerging type of inequality is digital inequality (van Djik, 2013). Digital differences refers to how your offline context, hinders or advances your ability to access the internet, resulting in digital inequalities. Different macro and micro factors lead to this digital divide. Continue reading →

Digital Differences

Many assume that everyone uses the internet in similar ways. Indeed, my use of ‘everyone’ underlines how blind some can be to the idea that in 2017, 9% of the UK population had never used the internet. Using the internet isn’t a highly specialised skill, but it is a highly individualised one. Web usage is contextual — it depends wholly on its relevance to one’s everyday life, and is directly affected by the implications of class, gender, ethnicity and social standing. Continue reading →

Exploring Digital Differences

Living on the web has a clear set of identifiable advantages, as covered last week on my blog. However, when access to the web is difficult this has a detrimental effect on individuals (Robinson et al., 2015); thus leading to digital differences. This then reflects inequalities within society onto the web (Badger, 2013) – which in turn allows us to understand how macro factors can play into digital differences. Continue reading →

Digital Differences Discovery!

Fig 1: My Representation of van Dijk’s conceptualisation of Digital Users Digital Differences is a concept I find is often overlooked, so I was pleased to have time to explore the concept. In Web Science, I looked it Digital Differences last year in Prof Susan Halford’s excellent SOCI3073 module. I noticed that this module chimed closely with Section 1.11 of the Learning in the Network Age MOOC. Continue reading →

Topic 1: ‘Living on the Web’ – Question and Starter Sources

Topic 1 - Living on the Web YOUR TASK – Evaluate the impact of your “Digital Differences” on how you interact with the Web. You should discuss what digital differences are and how they affect you and others when it comes to 'Living on the Web'. To help prepare your work, check out the materials in the  #FLlearningnetworks MOOC  sections 1.11 to 1.13 and engage with other learners in the discussions there. Continue reading →

Introductory Topic- My reflection

When first carrying out my research on the Introductory Topic, I was convinced that I was a Digital Resident, due to my status as a ‘Digital Native’ and my inability to go without my phone for more than a few hours (Prensky, 2001). However, I discovered my superficial familiarity with digital tools, my ability to do the basics and maintain my digital identity, but my struggle in creating this blog, visuals and my video (The Economist, 2010). Continue reading →

What Have I Learnt? Intro Topic Reflection

Image courtesy of: OCLC Research My first dive into the subject of ‘digital residents’ versus ‘digital immigrants’ proved to be much more insightful and no opinion I read is the exact same. The first step was to understand everything a little better; it started with some additional reading. Continue reading →

Intro Topic: Reflection

Prior to UOSM2008 all my modules had been assessed through an exam at the end of the semester so, when I saw UOSM2008 was assessed entirely through blog posts I felt that I was digitally competent enough to find it less challenging than my other modules. Continue reading →

Intro Topic: Reflection

Prior to UOSM2008 all my modules had been assessed through an exam at the end of the semester so, when I saw UOSM2008 was assessed entirely through blog posts I felt that I was digitally competent enough to find it less challenging than my other modules. Continue reading →

Reflection: This LIFE LESSON will change your life!

Here I thought blogging was easy until I was showed a glimpse of the amount of thought that actually goes into it. This module is shaping up to be an exciting challenge. Going into the topic on Digital Natives and Immigrants, I had heard of talk of disparities with millennials and preceeding generations through Simon Sinek’s viral video. So, Prensky’s theory nothing profound. Tbh To be honest, I was quick to dismiss it out of laziness. Continue reading →

UOSM2008: Intro topic reflection

This post is part of a series published as part of the University of Southampton’s Living and Working on the Web module. To find out more, including links to all of this year’s student blogs, check out the UOSM2008 website. Although it has involved completely different styles of university teaching and writing to what I’ve been accustomed, I feel I’ve been adjusting well to UOSM2008 throughout the intro topic. Continue reading →

Introductory Topic – Self Reflection

See my original post here. While I do consider myself to be reasonably competent using the internet, comparing my digital self test with others has shown me that I am lacking in some areas; Mostly involved around participating in and building online social networks and managing my online identity. Prenksy’s argument for “Digital Natives and Immigrants” appears as a persuasive and black and white approach to categorising internet users. Continue reading →

Introductory Topic – Self Reflection

While I do consider myself to be reasonably competent using the internet, comparing my digital self test with others has shown me that I am lacking in some areas; Mostly involved around participating in and building online social networks and managing my online identity. Prenksy’s argument for “Digital Natives and Immigrants” appears as a persuasive and black and white approach to categorising internet users. Continue reading →

Reflecting on the Introductory Topic

On ‘Digital Visitors and Residents’ Upon reflecting on my previous blog post I believe that I have gained a better understanding of my own use of digital technologies. Beginning with the digital self-test made me aware that my digital literacy was not up to the standard which Prensky (2001) would expect of a ‘digital native’ that grew up around technology. Continue reading →

My Reflection on the Introductory Topic

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants Initially, I was sceptical about Prensky’s theory of digital natives and digital immigrants. After interacting with my peers, I recognised that I was not the only one who did not identify as a digital native and therefore would not fit into Prensky’s theory. At first, I was quite focused on the age biases in Prensky’s theory. Continue reading →

Reflecting on Residency

The first week of creating content for this module has been very interesting. Reading my peer’s blogs and seeing how differently each of us has responded to the same task has helped me to establish the persona that I want on my blog. Before researching and wholly understanding what a digital resident is I would have classed myself a digital resident on most platforms. Continue reading →

Reflecting On My First Blog Post

Writing my first blog post, I quickly realised that it was going to be extremely difficult to put all the information I had gathered through research in to the minuscule 300 word limit. On top of this I really wanted my post to be as engaging, and aesthetically pleasing, and not just a page with 300 words. This is where info-graphics became extremely useful, it allowed me to give a detailed summary of what Prensky Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives meant, and what David S. Continue reading →

Lets Reflect upon the Introductory topic…

  As a psychology student, I am not exposed to the vast array of digital skills on my course that are encountered within the UOSM2008 module. Therein lies the reason why I chose the module, to expand my digital competencies using sites such as WordPress and Piktochart. Prior to the commencing of this module, I would have considered myself to be a digital resident. This is particularly because of not previously giving the notion of digital literacies any deep thought. Continue reading →

Thoughts on Digital Residency

The beginning of this module has facilitated a significant amount of thought on the concept of ‘Digital Literacy’. This topic has coincided perfectly with delivering sessions on Digital Literacy to first-year Business students, as alluded to in my first post. Continue reading →

Introductory Topic: Reflection

When initially tasked with evaluating my digital literacies and presenting them in a blog post, I didn’t anticipate how challenging it would actually be, despite considering myself highly computer competent. What I didn’t realise entering this module from an Economics background – there are various skills I rarely exercise, such as my creativity. Continue reading →