Media Ecology Case Study Analysis

This is the review and analysis of answers provided in 10 Years Old & Tech Savvy - Media Ecology Case Study Interview.

The online habits of the 10 year old interviewed for this particular study indicate she can and does wear many digital hats.

The Creator 

 

Our interviewee described creating characters with fashionable outfits through the digital game JoJo's Fashion Show. It is apparent it is one of her favorites by her comments regarding playing it often in a short period of time and running out of tokens to continue play. Because it is a favorite and one of the games she was first introduced to that allowed her to interject her own creativity, she may have failed to note the other digital outlets she taps into to display her own creativity. From background knowledge, we know that she also uses her iPod applications to create virtual desserts/food and clothing/outfits. Applications found through social media sites have also inspired her to create unique images for herself and friends and family. 
(Pictures courtesy of child's facebook page.  Address not included because of student's age.)

 

The Researcher

As a fourth grader, our interviewee was required to complete her first research paper. In our interview she indicated she uses computers at school to do " research for stuff like projects.  Things like that.  We mainly use it for research."  Her first paper required her to be resourceful online. "Anything I'm doing if I need to know something, I use Google," she said.  Inadvertent research has encouraged her to produce her own digital stories. She is a frequent visitor of YouTube. That has inspired her to create her own videos. (Links can be provided if necessary.) When our interviewee expressed interest in writing, an adult and our student researched ways to convert her traditional writing to an online, digital activity. Through that research, together, they discovered Tikatok.

The Gamer 

Our student indicated her favorite use of a computer is to play games. That's true at home, with friends and in spare time in the classroom. Because of early exposure to online games, the 10 year old indicated few issues in learning to play new games. In fact, it was difficult to explain how she learned to play games initially. "When you get a computer, it has the games thing on it and you automatically have games.  I click on them and I just learn how to play them," she explained. Upon further thought, she shared that she has received help from an older sibling and recalled using the help features that most online games provide. Narrowing down her favorite games was difficult. It took much thought to indicate a single favorite. From prior knowledge, we know she plays countless games online and many of them reiterate skills she should be learning:

• reading text
• spelling games
• memory games
• number games/games of chance

The Bonder

Despite the interviewee often being the only child in the household, the tech savvy student uses online and digital resources to keep in touch and bond with others. Initially she remembers her older half sister teaching her how to navigate digital texts and games. "When I got my regular computer, my sister (16 years old), she was helping me with the games that I didn't understand," she said. Our student is a frequent facebook user. She plays a number of games online competing with family and friends who do not live close in proximity. Her activity log indicates recent interactions with:

• Papa Pear Saga
• Village Life
• Farm Heroes Saga
• Candy Crush Saga

These games often require interaction with other facebook friends.

The Learner

The use of technology in school is limited for our interviewee. With that said, when asked how computers could be used more often in the classroom, she indicated for research purposes. Although she spends much of her extracurricular time gaming, bonding, researching and creating online, she saw little ways to better implement online techniques in her classroom."I think they should let us use them more often for research because sometimes we have to do projects, like we do projects on West Virginia our home state and she let only a few people on the computers at a time so it was more difficult for us to get enough research because we only got about 15 minutes on the computer," she said. Because of answers to other questions and for the reasons indicated above, it appears she may not have ideas on how to implement technology into classroom curriculum, it's clear that she would be up for the challenge and would adapt to the changes quickly.