Week 8 - Questions 3

3) In your blog criticise each website (without giving details that would send a reader directly there) in terms of up-to-dateness, usability and practicing what it preaches.

1. This website was produced in 2001 so is slightly out dated. Using www.alltheweb.com this website was easier to find rather than just using www.google.com etc. Having said this the topic ‘Digital Immigration’ was a hard topic to research anyhow only finding topic titles such as Digital Immigrant. Especially not knowing anything about Digital Immigration before this topic I found it specially hard with limiting information. This website was simple enough for a first timer to understand and get to grips with what a Digital Immigrant was, using an every day-to-day example. With the understanding of the term Digital Immigrant, it was fairly easy to work out what the term Digital Immigration was. Practising what is preached was not so much of an issue with this reading but more relating it to my personal current situation. I could easily relate to what the text was saying and thought it was strange that I didn’t know about this term before hand even though I was living it (if that makes sense).
2. This seconds website I visited actually came up first on the web search, so very easily accessible. The website held 2 sources of information both with different dates. One 2005 and another 2007. As you can see these are more up to date than the website above. The other reassuring this about this website is there are rates for each dated text about whether people agree or not, and the majority did. This was reassuring as I was researching a topic which I didn’t understand or know anything about. As with the website above you can relate to the texts and put yourself and other around you into these situations.
3. This website is dated 2006 as is published by a trustworthy academic source. This site has a page dedicated to Digital Immigration even though the information is short it is interesting. With links to the publisher of the first website I analysised and links to other sources such as a ‘Sunday Times’ report this website talks about the 2 counterparts. As the first website this mentions ‘Digital Immigrants, but also about educational gaming which also helped me come to my own conclusion about what ‘Digital Immigration’ actually is.
4. The fourth website I analysised had a lot more information than the others so far. Even though it went along the same theory lines as the others it also went into more detail about Digital Immigration, Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives. I was compelled to believe the information on this website because of a comment at the bottom of the page which I thought was more than relevant. It discussed how technology is changing kids and their learning with the use of public events designed to celebrate the launch of a new series of books about the discussed topic. This website wasn’t wasy to find and took some hunting for using the search engine www.alltheweb.com and also www.worldofscience.com. This web site also has a blog attached so there is the chance to interact with the author of the webpage and other people interested in the subject of Digital Immigration. With dates on the blogs such as Dec 2007 this information is relatively new and interesting. I can relate to what … is saying on this website and feel like I am ‘practicing what it preaches’ on a daily basis. However since I didn’t know what the terms meant before researching this subject I was doing this unknowingly.
5. The author of this website was also an author to a book called ‘Brave new Words’ which seemed relevant since I didn’t know the words Digital Immigrant before this search. This website was very easy to find using a search engine and not hard to understand at all. Out of all the websites I would say this was probably to easiest to understand and the most useful. Dated in 2008 it is the most recent out of the 5 websites which also makes the information more relevant.