True nomads are moving due to survival and economic needs. It is not a "lifestyle" it is a way of making a living--finding food and water and the other necessities of life.
Applying the term "nomad" to kids who have the luxury to move around (physically and electronically) because they have the disposable income to own personal mobile devices, have the free time to spend updating facebook pages, and have the ability to twitter away their time tweeting about their latest purchase or dates, just misses that mark.
Yes, as teachers/instructors whose goal is to assist in learning, we should understand and accomodate the life of our students/trainees, but, also as teachers/instructors, we should be aware of the peoples of the rest of the world.
I like you connection, Alex. I was born in the DRCongo in the Ituri forest and the forest people also move around from place to place as needed. They build community where they are and facilitate their survival and growth through their nomadic lifestyle. Similarly, today's students have a different idea of community and really have an immediate sense of connection that those of us (referring to myself here) who are pre-PC and pre-digital don't share. That is our challenge as instructors in this digital world - to accommodate diversity in community building while at the same time directing and guiding those communities into communities of learning that share strong ideas and build new knowledge.
Hello Thomas,
I appreciate your insights on this subject. Among other things, you asserted that:
"To call kids using wireless apps on mobile devices "nomads", misses a vital element of what a nomad is, and really trivializes the issues of the real nomadic peoples of the world."
Just wondering if you can throw a little bit more light on what this missing vital element is. Thanks.
My first contact with this word was several years - used to describe African Cattle Rearers who moved from place to place as they searched for a grazing place for their cattle.
In this connection, the anology is made between students who are mobile and who have the flexibility to learn from almost anywhere - just like the North or East African normads who move about from place to place with their cattle.
The virtual life culture of these students are dynamic rather than static and the tool here is wireless connection.
Thanks.
Great comments, Glenda. I love how you say that learning is an extension of living these days - which provides a wonderful "experiential" learning opportunity that Dewey and others theorized about and worked so hard to construct. We can meet students already involved in many different social communities and simply expand ther ideas of community into the academic world and demonstrate academic benefits to the same approach. The same goes for so much technology our students already know...
This generation of students was brought up with technology. It begain with the television interactive learning shows and "mini" computer learning games. As the technology improved, the students became more accustomed to using it as an extension of their learning.
This generation of students has experienced open and instant communication on a regular basis. They can access the web any time and nearly any where. The cyber cafes are a reflection of a competitive selling edge for these students. They want to be connected all the time and will seek places that support that need.
The growth of the online learning environment is a prime example of the felxibility of being able to take classes where, when, and how they want them. They consider learning an extension of "living" as oppose to putting life on hold to study.
Hi Thomas,
Yes, that's an interesting discussion - it is true we "hijack" terms from various disciplines in academia...in fact, knowledge construction is really about exploring concepts for the sake of understanding. Much happens to support understanding and often terms pop up in various
contexts but with slightly different meanings - thus your reference to "hijacking" :)
Regarding young people and their use of digital and mobile media - my sense is that while young users of these technologies may be knowledgeable about the actual functions of the technology, they still have to be taught academic skills like research. Therefore although we as teachers may be playing catch up, or feel like it sometimes with technology use, we still are the ones who must guide the learning process and develop those academic skills not yet developed in our students.
I always worry when an academic decides to hijack a term from another discipline to apply to their topic. In this case the anthropological term "nomad" applied to modern, middle and upper class western kids. A nomadic people cycle around a set of locations depending on "the availability of food supply and the technology to exploit it." [Encyclopædia Britannica] So, the driving force for real nomads is physical survival.
To call kids using wireless apps on mobile devices "nomads", misses a vital element of what a nomad is, and really trivializes the issues of the real nomadic peoples of the world.
However, in one very key sense these kids are like nomads. I find that the kids using their mobile devices and computers cycle through the same sites and rarely, if ever, wander outside them. They stay in their comfort zones. For example, even though the school provides the students with access to a wealth of alternative sources of research, when I assign a research assignment, I invariably get Wikipedia references. I would be so happy to see them, without my prompting, search outside of their comfortable cycle of sites.
