Digital+Nation

**__Digital Nation__**

**__Chapter 1: Distracted by Everything:__** __M.I.T. students are among the world's smartest and most wired. They constantly multitask with their tech tools.__ 0:22 The program starts off mentioning sponsors: What is the difference between public tv sponsor recognition and a commercial tv ad? 1:10 “You can be more crazy online because there’s no one watching what you’re doing.” Do you act differently online? Why? How? 1:50 Will people eventually live most of their lives in a virtual world? 4:26 Students talk about how they are all connected all the time: Is it helpful or harmful to be connected all the time? Why or why not? 6:00 Can you think as well when multitasking? 5:55-7:30 Student says he emails while in class. Do you multitask using tech while in class? Isn’t that rude? Can you truly pay full attention to more than one thing at a time? 07:30-08:30 “In general our brains can’t do two things at once.” Agree/disagree?

**__Chapter 2: What's It Doing to Their Brains?__** __Tests given Stanford multitaskers yield troubling discoveries. Other research into Net use and the brain raises more questions.__ 10:50-11:20 Why would people think they are great at multitasking but then really be lousy at it? 11:50-12:51 Are we distracting ourselves to death? 13:00 “We are changing what it means to be a human being by using all this stuff”. 15:25- 15:42 “Technology keeps outdistancing the research” 15:55-16:42 (also 18:30 on addiction) Is using the internet as addictive as drinking and gambling? 16:00 23x Greater risk to get into an accident while texting. Should texting while driving be banned?

**__Chapter 3: South Korea's Gaming Craze__** __Some cautionary lessons from a country where Internet addiction has become a public health crisis.__ 18:00 “People have actually died in PC bombs in South Korea during gaming marathons after playing for 50 hours straight with no food or water.” 19:55 Would we all be better off if video games didn’t exist? 19:55 In South Korea, addiction to video games can be diagnosed as a psychiatric disorder: Where is the border to playing for fun and addiction? 19:55 Does anyone know people like this or have you realized that you yourself started to be addicted to games or other media? --> point to possibly introduce assignment for extra credit, in which students be without media for 24 hours and write about 350 words about it. 24:35 “Over the past 20 years the Net has changed from a thing one does to the way one lives.” What are the implications of this (could also point to 24 without media assignment)? 25:10-26:58 Can you teach young students how to use the computer responsibly? What does that mean?

**__Chapter 4:__ __Teaching with Technology__** __Teachers are embracing digital media--'it keeps students engaged; new skills are needed for a new age.' But is there a catch?__ 28:25 – 29:13 Digital immigrants / Digital natives. Walking into a classroom without media is like walking into a desert. Agree/disagree 28:50 “Classrooms need to meet kids where they are living…online” Agree/disagree 29:14 “My childrens’ education might have a different purpose than mine did” What would be the difference purpose? 31:00 Principal –“Technology is like oxygen” Agree/disagree? Why? 32:29-33:00 Is all of this really just instant gratification education? 34:54 Principal - “The world has sped up in a lot of ways and education hasn’t” Agree/disagree

**__Chapter 5 The Dumbest Generation?__** __The debate has just begun on whether we are losing as much as we're gaining in a 24/7 wired world.__ 35:52 “I can’t assign a novel more than 200 pages” How do you experience this in your life? 37:15-38:18 Do constant interruptions have an effect on your writing? They write in paragraphs due to constant distractions. 39:38 “When writing happened there were certainly things we lost. One of them was memory” Good/bad? 40:30 how has the net impacted your life? How often are you distracted? 41:00 We have dealt with an information overload before and adapted (example of streets in New York). Will we adapt to this too?

**__Chapter 6: Relationships__** __Millions of people are inhabiting the Net as if it were a real place, satisfying the urge to connect to others in online games, virtual worlds.__ 41:46-42:40 How does technology change relationships? 42:30 Do you ever censor what you write on blogs/facebook? 42:43 Online cooking show with boy and his grandmother. Does she simulate a connection that people have with their grandmothers? 45:40 Have you ever played massive multiplayer games like World of Warcraft? 45:40 Do you use the computer to satisfy your urge to connect to other people? 48:00-49:42 Is technology separating us or bringing us closer? 51:00 How could online dating differ from real life dating? 52:00 Do these new technologies provide new ways to be intimate?

**__Chapter 7: Virtual Worlds__** __Second Life offers a totally new reality for humans, says its creator -- and IBM has begun shifting its meetings into this virtual space.__ 54:18- What happens when all meetings occur in a virtual world? More social /connected / dependent in Second Life than email or IM? Could it solve alienation? 56:00-56:51 Are technologies tools of connection or division? 59:55 Weird huge empty IBM office building in New York. What would you personally think about having a job in which Second Life is often used?

**__Chapter 8: Can Virtual Experiences Change Us?__** __The U.S. military is using virtual spaces for PTSD therapy and for flying drones in Iraq while based in a room in Nevada.__ 1:02:15 “Distinctions between virtual and real are becoming blurred, even interchangeable” What about making yourself appear better than in real life? In the video they say it could change the way we later see ourselves in real life. What are the implications of this? 1:06:17 “Military has been a driver for technology”. Military also set foundation for the internet. 1:06:50-1:08:35 What is the difference when you are fighting a war where there is no risk? 1:14:12 Army recruiting center in Philadelphia – play free video games. Is this ethically right to encourage kids to join army by creating virtual adrenaline rush?

**__Chapter 9: Where Are We Headed?__**  __A school is organized around learning through video games--maybe its students are getting something we aren't yet able to measure or recognize.__ 1:18:15: “Kids have ability to move seamlessly between the virtual and the real” 1:18:20 “It’s a radical model. Using gaming as a lens for the entire curriculum” Could this work? Can you find educational games in your own field? 1:20:00 We got to slow down and stop, children have to be protected against media 1:21:05 “Technology challenges us to assert our human values”