Where to next?

So, it's on to research methods... Having deliberately had a couple of weeks away from thinking about the digital world, my mind has been pulled in numerous directions this morning in relation finding a focus for the next assignment.

With a primary focus on the research method(s) chosen rather than what I might chose to research, I still want to do something that will contribute, that feels meaningful. However, where to go?

Had an interesting time reading critical articles with reference to the digital natives debate and in particular,  abstracts relating to 2 research papers from Holland identifying Traditionalists, Gamers, Networkers, and Producers rather than digital natives and that not all of today’s youth are active in interactive media production as described in the Net Generation literature. Guess I could have told them that! Any UK youth worker working with young people in deprived communities or with multiple issues in their lives would probably observe the same thing....

Mark Bullen writing on Net Gen Skeptic starts his comments with the title "Another Dutch research project fails to find the Net Generation". Interesting in terms of language. I think that we do have an internet generation: young people who have grown up with the internet, never knowing what it was like before, and inevitably that has to have an impact. Google handles 245 million searches per day globally. Granted, not all of these are conducted by young people, however, what did we used to do before we could just press a button? The Net Generation has to apply somewhere here, a generation that has maybe never posted a letter or used a reference book to research, but not as an exclusive concept that is age-based.

Still of interest to me is the issue of educators  choosing to use or not use digital tools for their work. I came across a 43 year old educator recently (within a football coaching context) who steadfastly refuses to have a computer at home or an email address, and who panics when asked to do a task online or to download information. And yet, when motivated by a subject or interest, used Youtube  clips on an interactive whiteboard to promote a great debate. What is that about? This refusal to move in one digital arena, when I suspect that he probably watches football at home on the latest technology!

So, the digital natives, digital immigrants concept is of interest in relation to youth work practitioner  and as a motivator to try to find answers to some of these questions. Maybe that's one piste to follow? Compare and contrast as they say...

CEOP Ambassador training

Just delivered this training again and the safety focus always highlights the naivety of practitioners, especially in relation to their own children. Always get people coming up to me afterwards saying that they're going to check more carefully on their teenagers...

Guess that's good for me - ticking off the outcomes, but it's also scary that people don't realise the huge potential for danger and damage.

On the flip side, the message is also about the positive and fantastic resource that the internet gives us, already changed so much since my last presentation a year ago, for example, the prevalence  of smartphones. I wonder where it can all go to and will it start to slow, or come to a complete stop at some point?

On a lighter note, watched the remastered Star Trek last night. Wow - those writers predicted it all: flip phones, blue tooth hands-free, ear pieces, GPRS. Spock's tri-corder was a bit of  a let down though - looked like a squeezy bottle mounted on a handlebar grip. Probably was!

Skills for Youth Work in a Digital Age workshop

Very interesting day with colleagues in Southampton, particularly being able to share stuff relating to HE, youth work and digital media.

Identified that we need to get a presence within the Y&C academic community, and Youth & Policy is the place to start. Will be interesting to adapt what I've already written to create a journal article: perhaps I will start to feel like a academic?

Have also got some focus for Assignment 2: that of the idea of an M level module around digital skills, possibly aimed at a more interdisciplinary context? Could survey across the field to get a sense of content/what's needed, and then follow up with key interviews perhaps? Might be interesting to analyse using something like SurveyMonkey to see how many people engage and how it works? Possibly follow up some with interviews? More to think about!