Digital Nation: life on the virtual frontier

I just finished watching, Digital_Nation: life on the virtual frontier. Did you know that in Korea, "Internet addition" is actually treated as a psychiatric disorder?  About 90% of children in Korea use the Internet on a daily basis, 10-15% of which are in a "high risk group." "Internet Rescue Schools" are scattered throughout the country in order to "treat" people afflicted with the disorder. Of course, Internet Etiquette is also a part of their required elementary school curriculum.

"Digital Nation" screenshot of Korean elementary school students singing.

"Digital Nation" screenshot of a Korean elementary school sign that reads, "Our ancestors were known as the politest eastern state. Now we are the kingdom of Internet etiquette."

Here are a couple of interesting quotes/notes taken from the Frontline story:

At a school in the Bronx: 

• School was on the verge of collapse. 
• Only 9% of students met state standards in math.
• Students were all given a laptop and within 4 years there were no incidents of violence, attendance increased over 90%, test scores in reading went up 30% and test scores in math almost 40%.

College students:

"Chronicle of higher education surveyed college professors, about basic skills today as compared to ten years ago. Only 6% of them said that, 'college students come to class very well prepared in writing.' By a 2 to 1 margin they said that basic skills are worse today then they were ten years ago."

  

"Instead of writing in essays, they are writing in paragraphs. Seeing less of a notion of a big idea being carried through and much more little bursts and snippets." 

IBM implemented a virtual working environment to save money. Employees work from home and meet up in Second Life-like virtual spaces.  

Virtual Reality Lab: 

A study in which an avatar was created 10cm taller than the actual subject, found that the avatar was "...three times more likely to beat someone else in a negotiation in virtual reality. And that advantage persists after you leave the virtual world...regardless of our actual height, you'll then beat me face to face when we have a negotiation [in real life]."

This documentary presents some very interesting perspectives on whether or not the Internet and technology are "dumbing" us down. I like Marc Prensky's (founder and CEO of Games2train) take on the matter:

There were people who complain when we moved from horses to cars. There were people who complained when we moved from letters to the telephone. And it's not that they're wrong totally, because things get lost. You might have less memory and we may not have as flowery writing, but we gain other things. And life moves on. 

Go ahead, take a break from that paper and take a peek...