Lumbering Jack asked this on the old boards:
" In what respect(s) do you think this site's failure to "keep up" has hurt us, and how will the new site address these perceived problems?
{I'll admit my bias, here. My wife has recently become addicted to Facebook (mostly for purposes of playing Pet Society). All I can see from my exposure to that "social networking" site is a vast sea of people, bound together by nothing more than vague chains of acquaintance, twitteringTM on about nothing in particular.}"
I answered him there, but I figured I'd cross post over here as well. Keep in mind that this is only my opinion.
I don't think any of our regulars are leaving because we haven't switched formats, but I truly believe that we not gaining any ground and that a good part of the reason is because a simple message board is not what newer users are looking for.
This year I'm not a regular classroom teacher. I'm the technology coach for my high school and my job is to help teachers effectively incorporate new technologies into their lesson planning in order get the students to higher levels of critical thinking. I've had to do a lot of research, and I started a grad program this Spring specializing in 21st century teaching skills. It's really opened my eyes to what's going on in our society.
One of the biggest revelations to me was that the old notion that we have X-number of brain cells and we'll never have more is wrong. Our brains do continue to grow and change based on external stimulus throughout our lives. What this means to young people is that due to computers and other forms of technology, their brains are actually formed differently than people of our (about age 30 and up) generation. Where we are hardwired to accept information in a linear, chronological fashion. Younger people are hardwired to accept information in a more "random access" manner. This is such a pronounced difference that experts have coined a couple of terms to describe the difference. "Digital Natives" are people who have been hardwired to accept information based on the way it is accessed through technology. Those who are geared towards linear informational access are called "Digital Immigrants." I'll use these terms now because it seems less patronizing than "old folks" and "young people." :)
Digital Natives can multitask far better than most Immigrants can. This is why sites like Facebook and MySpace look so "busy" to Immigrants. There IS a lot going on, but that's how the Natives process the information. Looking at a simple message board to many if not most of them would be like watching the hour hand on a clock move.
And it will only get more pronounced as time moves on. It's a cliche to say that it's incredible how quickly things change, but it is. For example, guess what percentage of students in an average high school have email addresses?
Answer: 35%
Does that stun you because you were expecting it to be higher? It did me when I found it out. The reason it's so low is because digital natives consider email to be the "old way" of electronic communication. I had to make my daughter get an email account as she prepares to go to college. Heck, I'll bet all the immigrants here know of at least one person their own age who considers email to be too new-fangled for them. The natives have picked up email, sniffed it, and tossed it aside.
And here we are using a format that's over ten years old. In technological terms that's pre-Cambrian.
That's my rationale for pushing for the change. Whether you agree with it or not, I hope that it clarifies where I stand a little.
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