week 9

a) The oldest digital native I know would have to be my uncle who is 49 (or something like that). He is very computer literate and for as long as I have known been using it. He has set up our family website tracing our family tree and invited many distant family members to join and also has set up many businesses online.

b) The youngest digital immigrant I know is my 13 year old cousin who has just moved here from a small town in Egypt. They did not even have a computer, let alone the internet there and he is finding it very difficult to incorporate the whole concept of the internet into his life.

c) My friend most threatens the notion of digital immigrant/native as he is very computer literate and is quick to find anything on the net however he likes to send mail through post and print off files that would be fine left on the computer which would suggest that he has an 'accent'. He holds characteristics of both a digital native and a digital immigrant.

d) The neo-luddite would have difficulty getting to uni in the first place as he would have to either walk or find a horse and carriage as he is scared of the mechanical beasts known as cars and trains. firstly at uni he have trouble enrolling without his enrollment timetable which you get online. In addition finding out his timetable at uni would be difficult as without being able to log in to his uni account he would have to go to student support. When he gets to his lesson and people form groups, he has no mobile number or email address to exchange with anyone so he exchanges address so that he can visit his group member without warning (which they won't be too impressed with). When assessment are due although he excells in exams he gets marked down for handwriting his essays and only using books as references without online journals which are more recently updated. In failing his first couple essays he is dishearted and realises that uni will be impossible for him without making some drastic changes.

e) A technophile in 2020 will have serious health issues due to lack of excercise due to the fact that every aspect of his life will involve sitting infront of his computer screen. With access to everything needed online he will be satisfied with never leaving his chair. The only excercise he will get is walking from his bed to the shower and the shower to his computer chair in the morning followed by the walk back from his computer to his bed. Every aspect of his life will revolve around the net including people delivering his food and work.