I am an immigrant in our digital nation. Ok, I realize that’s a stretch as I haven’t suffered the discrimination and homesickness of a true immigrant just off the boat. I never walked in my grandmother’s shoes, never stepped out of steerage onto Ellis Island, a girl of nineteen, alone. Fortunately, I was Born in the USA, not mandated to pass a test to become a citizen, a situation so frightening that Nana lived for seventy years without the rights and protections afforded US citizens. She never voted, never learned to drive, never worked outside the home after her first couple of years as
for a rich family in Bar Harbor, although I don’t think she dressed as lasciviously as Fran Drescher, well, at least not on job .
“She’s afraid,” I overheard Aunt Nora when I was ten, “of failing the test. Then what? Would she be forced to return to Ireland?”
My immigrant status is not dire. It doesn’t frighten me and I know, we all know, that we’ll never return to a world without technology. However, as a digital immigrant, I do share some commonalities with Nana. First, there’s the language barrier and on this point, I think I have her beat as her native tongue was English. There were some differences here in America, but nothing that sounded too foreign. Wish the same were true for me. jRSVP, RSS, Machinima, Mashup, Crowdsourcing, and Augmented Reality (Vuforia), I mean, are we still talking English?
Second, the customs and traditions of a new land could be confusing. Nana was used to eating rashers and bangers for breakfast, but Boxty and Barm Brack were more difficult to find. Irish wakes, here in the States, were a more subdued affair, the parish priest didn’t come to Sunday dinner and families were not forced to give one back to the Church, although we constantly teased our youngest sister that it was her duty to go the nunnery. Perhaps she could have been swayed by knowing the The Joy of Being a Catholic Nun. Damn, I may have become a bride of Christ, if I’d seen this video.
In our Digital Nation, customs are changing. Generation Y has a new appendage. Although their cell phones are not physically attached to their bodies, they are never without them. My son, Devin, ran in 2012 Boston Marathon. The hardest thing for him was being without his phone for four hours. There is always a cell or text going off somewhere with people willing to stop and take the call. Every day a new product is being advertised like Withings Pulse and Bladepad. Our digital natives understand so naturally, as easy as turning the pages of a book.
Like newcomers to America, I see the beauty of the new landscape. I appreciate how Assistive Technology has leveled the playing field for kids with disabilities. I value the options for creativity with lesson planning. I’ve grown accustom to the ease of communication. But the most techno-fun I’ve ever had is creating this Hyperlink. In the words of D.F. Warlick, reading is now across, down and deeper. It’s 3D without the American Paper Optics. Dig in.
