Review, February 2, 2010
PBS FRONTLINE, Digital Nation
Produced and directed by Rachel Dretzin
Written by Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff
Digital Nation is a documentary that takes an in-depth look at the pros and cons of the technological entrenchment of our society. It explores technology in our daily lives at home, in schools and colleges, in the workplace, and even in the military. It discusses the characterization of today’s youth as digital natives, where as today’s adults who use technology as digital immigrants. It’s a fascinating view into the world of technology and where we are heading in the 21st century. As a digital immigrant, it evoked hours of pondering the “good versus the bad” of a digital nation and more contemplation regarding my own digital skills and the education I need to pursue in order to become more technologically savvy as an educator of digital natives.
There was a fascinating exploration into the issue of the ability to multitask. Rushkoff and Dretzin poll MIT students who feel as digital natives that they are extremely successful multitaskers. They have multiple devices on and windows open at the same time. They feel it’s unfair for professor to restrict or limit use of technology because they’re capable of doing everything well. Dr. Nass of Stanford University is researching the brain of multitaskers and their ability to multitask. The results indicated that, “virtually all multitaskers think they’re brilliant at multitasking…” and what they found in reality was that “multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking: they get distracted constantly and memory is very disorganized. Recent work also shows they’re worse at analytic reasoning and we worry that we’re creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.” MIT students interviewed admitted to being unable to clearly write and using disconnected thoughts in separate paragraphs while using other digital media. Professor Sherry Turkle of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self says of her students that they have “done themselves a disservice by … believing that a multitasking learning environment will serve their best purposes. There are important things you can’t think about unless it’s still, and you’re only thinking about one thing at a time … I teach some of the most brilliant minds in the world. There are just some things that are not amenable to being thought about in conjunction with 15 other things.”
Critics of technology in education, such as Professor Mark Bauerlein of Emory University and author of The Dumbest Generation, suggests that students aren’t as academically capable as they were before they became digitally “distracted”, and in fact, academic achievement in reading and writing declines as they become more “wired”. Another critic, Todd Oppenheimer author of The Flickering Mind, suggests that digital media is short attention span information and creates “instant gratification education: a thought comes to you, you pursue it; you see a website you click on it; you want to hear music while you’re studying, you do it”. He believes that this digital bombardment “bifurcates the brain” which prevents it “from being able to pursue one linear thought… and teaches you that you should have every urge answered the minute the urge occurs.”
Proponents of technology in education feel that there is no turning back from progress and we need to speak the same language as our youth who is growing up in a digital world. When Jason Levy became principal of a secondary school in the Bronx riddled with gang and violence problems, low attendance, and failing scores, he turned it around with technology. He purchased laptops for all students and technology is a required component for each class. He described technology as “oxygen and no one would argue to take oxygen from kids”. Levy believes that being wired helps kids make more sense of school and gives them the skills that they need for future employment. The statistics are quite impressive: violence significantly decreased, daily attendance over 90%, reading scores increased by 30%, and math scores increased by 40%.
Digital Nation went on to explore virtual technology applications. At The Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, Jeremy Bailenson’s research is funded by the government, marketers, and even the military. Results of their research showed evidence that advantage one gains in a virtual world, such as winning a negotiation, actually carryover to the real world once you’ve left the virtual reality.
The Army uses a “soft sell 21st century approach to recruiting modeled, in part, on the Apple store” at the Army Experience Center (AEC), located in the Philadelphia area. Kids 13 and older can play XBOX and PC gaming stations for free. While the recruiters are not allowed to recruit kids under 17, they chat with everyone and answer questions. Critics and protestors of the center accuse the Army of “blurring the lines between game and reality, virtual war and real war.” Those who run the center defend their approach by saying that kids are smart enough to know that virtual war games are nothing like going to war in Iraq. They state that the Army know what the youth in America like video games and that’s why they provide the experience in the AEC. Noah Shachtman, Contributing Editor of Wired, states “The military understands that if they can’t embrace today’s digital youth, they’re never going to recruit the kind of soldiers, kind of airmen, kind of marines that they need to have for the next century.”
Other fascinating applications of virtual reality explored in Digital Nation were virtual simulations used by the military to help soldiers and veterans who suffer from PTSD. The Virtual Reality Therapy program is piloted in about 40 centers across the country and is reported to have promising results. Again, the military is one of the leaders using digital and virtual technology. The pilots of predator drones sit on a base in Las Vegas piloting their drones that are flying 7,500 miles away. Critics of the drone program suggest that there is too much detachment in this type of warfare and drones aren’t capable of distinguishing civilian from threat. Noah Shachtman of Wired comments, “Going to war has meant the same thing for over 5,000 years. Going to war meant that you were going to a place where there was such danger you might never come home again, you might never see your family again. Now compare that experience to that of the predator drone pilot. You’re sitting behind a computer screen, shooting missiles at enemy targets, you’re killing enemy combatants and then at the end of the day, you get back in your car and twenty minutes later you’re at the dinner table talking to your kids about their homework. This disconnect of being at war and at home is very tough for the human mind to wrap itself around. We’re finding that some of these drone pilots actually have combat stress and PTSD even just like the units physically deployed into Iraq and Afganistan.” It's surprising to learn that pilots who are functioning in a virtual space are experiencing PTSD.
Virtual worlds are at the leading edge of digital technology and are quickly becoming a faster, more efficient, and budget-friendly alternative for many companies. Digital Nation profiles Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life. Second Life is described by Rushkoff as “an immersive, 3-D online universe.” In this virtual world one makes an avatar; a character who may look exactly like you and lives in the virtual world as that person. Rosedale states that he created Second Life to solve the problem of alienation and isolation in the world today. In the virtual world, he thinks that people are nicer, more polite, more connected and social, and behave much better than they would say, in an email or instant message. Rushkoff says, “What struck me most about Rosedale was his confidence that he could solve the alienation modern technology has helped to create with more technology.” IBM is an example of one company that is using Second Life with its employees. It was striking to see an IBM office park in New York that was built in the 1980’s for thousands of employees. As Rushkoff toured the building it was eerily quiet and empty. None of the employees had been laid-off or fired. They were all working from home or traveling for work. They use Second Life to stay connected to work. What Rosedale sees in virtual reality is the re-connection - “With virtual reality, unlike the internet, you’re not alone anymore”.
Professor Sherry Turkle of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self believes that technology is not inherently “good or bad; it’s powerful and it’s complicated. We have to take advantage of what it can do, learn what it can do, but also ask, What is it doing to us? We’re going to slowly, slowly find our balance, but I think it’s going to take time.” Professor Henry Jenkins of USC comments on the 21st century use of technology and our ability to cope and adapt. He says, “What we are seeing is a period evolution. At the end of the day, we’re better off as a society if we go at this with a sense of open-mindedness and exploration.”
PBS FRONTLINE, Digital Nation
Produced and directed by Rachel Dretzin
Written by Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff
Digital Nation is a documentary that takes an in-depth look at the pros and cons of the technological entrenchment of our society. It explores technology in our daily lives at home, in schools and colleges, in the workplace, and even in the military. It discusses the characterization of today’s youth as digital natives, where as today’s adults who use technology as digital immigrants. It’s a fascinating view into the world of technology and where we are heading in the 21st century. As a digital immigrant, it evoked hours of pondering the “good versus the bad” of a digital nation and more contemplation regarding my own digital skills and the education I need to pursue in order to become more technologically savvy as an educator of digital natives.
There was a fascinating exploration into the issue of the ability to multitask. Rushkoff and Dretzin poll MIT students who feel as digital natives that they are extremely successful multitaskers. They have multiple devices on and windows open at the same time. They feel it’s unfair for professor to restrict or limit use of technology because they’re capable of doing everything well. Dr. Nass of Stanford University is researching the brain of multitaskers and their ability to multitask. The results indicated that, “virtually all multitaskers think they’re brilliant at multitasking…” and what they found in reality was that “multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking: they get distracted constantly and memory is very disorganized. Recent work also shows they’re worse at analytic reasoning and we worry that we’re creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.” MIT students interviewed admitted to being unable to clearly write and using disconnected thoughts in separate paragraphs while using other digital media. Professor Sherry Turkle of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self says of her students that they have “done themselves a disservice by … believing that a multitasking learning environment will serve their best purposes. There are important things you can’t think about unless it’s still, and you’re only thinking about one thing at a time … I teach some of the most brilliant minds in the world. There are just some things that are not amenable to being thought about in conjunction with 15 other things.”
Critics of technology in education, such as Professor Mark Bauerlein of Emory University and author of The Dumbest Generation, suggests that students aren’t as academically capable as they were before they became digitally “distracted”, and in fact, academic achievement in reading and writing declines as they become more “wired”. Another critic, Todd Oppenheimer author of The Flickering Mind, suggests that digital media is short attention span information and creates “instant gratification education: a thought comes to you, you pursue it; you see a website you click on it; you want to hear music while you’re studying, you do it”. He believes that this digital bombardment “bifurcates the brain” which prevents it “from being able to pursue one linear thought… and teaches you that you should have every urge answered the minute the urge occurs.”
Proponents of technology in education feel that there is no turning back from progress and we need to speak the same language as our youth who is growing up in a digital world. When Jason Levy became principal of a secondary school in the Bronx riddled with gang and violence problems, low attendance, and failing scores, he turned it around with technology. He purchased laptops for all students and technology is a required component for each class. He described technology as “oxygen and no one would argue to take oxygen from kids”. Levy believes that being wired helps kids make more sense of school and gives them the skills that they need for future employment. The statistics are quite impressive: violence significantly decreased, daily attendance over 90%, reading scores increased by 30%, and math scores increased by 40%.
Digital Nation went on to explore virtual technology applications. At The Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, Jeremy Bailenson’s research is funded by the government, marketers, and even the military. Results of their research showed evidence that advantage one gains in a virtual world, such as winning a negotiation, actually carryover to the real world once you’ve left the virtual reality.
The Army uses a “soft sell 21st century approach to recruiting modeled, in part, on the Apple store” at the Army Experience Center (AEC), located in the Philadelphia area. Kids 13 and older can play XBOX and PC gaming stations for free. While the recruiters are not allowed to recruit kids under 17, they chat with everyone and answer questions. Critics and protestors of the center accuse the Army of “blurring the lines between game and reality, virtual war and real war.” Those who run the center defend their approach by saying that kids are smart enough to know that virtual war games are nothing like going to war in Iraq. They state that the Army know what the youth in America like video games and that’s why they provide the experience in the AEC. Noah Shachtman, Contributing Editor of Wired, states “The military understands that if they can’t embrace today’s digital youth, they’re never going to recruit the kind of soldiers, kind of airmen, kind of marines that they need to have for the next century.”
Other fascinating applications of virtual reality explored in Digital Nation were virtual simulations used by the military to help soldiers and veterans who suffer from PTSD. The Virtual Reality Therapy program is piloted in about 40 centers across the country and is reported to have promising results. Again, the military is one of the leaders using digital and virtual technology. The pilots of predator drones sit on a base in Las Vegas piloting their drones that are flying 7,500 miles away. Critics of the drone program suggest that there is too much detachment in this type of warfare and drones aren’t capable of distinguishing civilian from threat. Noah Shachtman of Wired comments, “Going to war has meant the same thing for over 5,000 years. Going to war meant that you were going to a place where there was such danger you might never come home again, you might never see your family again. Now compare that experience to that of the predator drone pilot. You’re sitting behind a computer screen, shooting missiles at enemy targets, you’re killing enemy combatants and then at the end of the day, you get back in your car and twenty minutes later you’re at the dinner table talking to your kids about their homework. This disconnect of being at war and at home is very tough for the human mind to wrap itself around. We’re finding that some of these drone pilots actually have combat stress and PTSD even just like the units physically deployed into Iraq and Afganistan.” It's surprising to learn that pilots who are functioning in a virtual space are experiencing PTSD.
Virtual worlds are at the leading edge of digital technology and are quickly becoming a faster, more efficient, and budget-friendly alternative for many companies. Digital Nation profiles Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life. Second Life is described by Rushkoff as “an immersive, 3-D online universe.” In this virtual world one makes an avatar; a character who may look exactly like you and lives in the virtual world as that person. Rosedale states that he created Second Life to solve the problem of alienation and isolation in the world today. In the virtual world, he thinks that people are nicer, more polite, more connected and social, and behave much better than they would say, in an email or instant message. Rushkoff says, “What struck me most about Rosedale was his confidence that he could solve the alienation modern technology has helped to create with more technology.” IBM is an example of one company that is using Second Life with its employees. It was striking to see an IBM office park in New York that was built in the 1980’s for thousands of employees. As Rushkoff toured the building it was eerily quiet and empty. None of the employees had been laid-off or fired. They were all working from home or traveling for work. They use Second Life to stay connected to work. What Rosedale sees in virtual reality is the re-connection - “With virtual reality, unlike the internet, you’re not alone anymore”.
Professor Sherry Turkle of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self believes that technology is not inherently “good or bad; it’s powerful and it’s complicated. We have to take advantage of what it can do, learn what it can do, but also ask, What is it doing to us? We’re going to slowly, slowly find our balance, but I think it’s going to take time.” Professor Henry Jenkins of USC comments on the 21st century use of technology and our ability to cope and adapt. He says, “What we are seeing is a period evolution. At the end of the day, we’re better off as a society if we go at this with a sense of open-mindedness and exploration.”
I thought that this documentary was a powerful insight into 21st Century use of digital media. I learned a lot about the technologies used in the world. I was bothered by the story about kids addicted to technology in Korea and wondered if it's a problem here in the U.S. and other areas of the world. I found the applications of virtual world to be fascinating and somewhat disturbing that virtual world is beginning to replace face-to-face meetings and contact in the business world. From a educator's perspective, I think that we need to provide technology use and learning daily with our students. However, technology can't and shouldn't replace human contact. It is through our interactions with people in which we learn, practice, and refine social skills, communication skills, values, morals, and ethics.
An excellent review of the program!
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