Media Ecology Case Study: Tae

With school being out, I racked my brain wondering where I would find an 8-18 year old student. Then I realized I have one in my house! My daughter turned 8 on June 4th and completed second grade. She was in a first/second grade split classroom this year. Her teacher was very open to technology and used the computer lab and smartboard often. I recall a few months into school this year, I asked Tae what she had been learning in school. She replied, "Mrs. Wills, hasn't made us do any work yet. We play a lot on the smartboard and get to use the computers. We googled spiders!" I smiled to myself that she did not even realize she was doing "school work" because she was enjoying herself so much.

Taegan is a very digitally versed child. She got her first iPod when she was still in utero. I used it to play music to her. When I bought my first laptop, it came with a netbook. Tae was four and picked up using the netbook faster than her father. She used that until she filled it full of parmesan cheese. She has her own desktop computer now that she got for Christmas 2 years ago (no more parmesan cheese incidents).

When I asked Tae if she was willing to let me interview her for my homework, she was very excited. She has asked me to interview her now about every hour or two...for days. She wanted to know what kind of questions I'd be asking. I told her I would ask about places she used technology like computers, her favorite things to do on the computer, websites she visited, etc. I think we'll both learn a lot.