Interview Transcript

I sat down with a child, age 10/female, to discuss her technology use. The following is the transcript of the interview:
Ask your young person to choose a pseudonym for you to use in the writing of your case.
My interviewee decided she wanted to be known as Princess Tinker Tot. (I have no idea where she came up with this, but I loved that she was that creative.

Me: Do you have a computer /iPod/MPC player/Wii/ etc....?

Princess Tinker Tot: I have an iPod Touch and a Nintendo DS. My parents have a computer, and my dad has an Xbox 360. I am sometimes allowed to use the computer.

Me: What kinds of things do you use the computer/phone/iPad etc for? 

Princess Tinker Tot: I use my iPod to listen to Bruno Mars, mostly. I have a whole bunch of games downloaded, too, but I mostly just listen to music. Sometimes I watch funny movies on YouTube or music videos. I do the same thing on the computer.

Me: What is your favorite thing to do on the computer?

Princess Tinker Tot: Watch movies on YouTube or music videos.

Me: How did you learn to do that?

Princess Tinker Tot: Ummm...I don't really know. I think I just heard about YouTube, and then once you get on there, it is pretty easy to find things.

Me: What are some other things you use the computer for?

Princess Tinker Tot: I have used it to do homework, before. Like, when I needed to something up or I needed to type a story or something. I have found pictures to use for a book report before.

Me: What is your favorite game? Why?

Princess Tinker Tot: That is hard. I really like Tap Studio because it goes to music. I also play Fruit Ninja and Candy Crush on my iPod. I like to play Minecraft, sometimes, on the computer.

Me: Do you know other people who do this?

Princess Tinker Tot: A lot of my friends play Minecraft and Candy Crush. I am pretty sure everyone does.

Me: How do you use the computer at school?

Princess Tinker Tot: We go to the computer lab to do Tech Steps (I think that's what they call them.) We also have to take tests on the computer. Sometimes they let us on a site called Cool Math. I like to play the Pancakeria game on there.

Me: How would you like to use the computer at school?

Princess Tinker Tot: I wish we could play Minecraft or do other fun things like games or listen to music. We can't get on YouTube at school, but I always try.

Me: Do you think teachers would let you use the computer to do those things? Why? Why not?

Princess Tinker Tot: Probably not because I always ask if we can get on YouTube in the Library but the teacher always says it's blocked. I don't get it, though, because YouTube has a lot of funny videos so they should not block it. Maybe they would let us get on Minecraft because it is sort of a learning thing.

Me: Anything else you would like to tell me?

Princess Tinker Tot: It would be cool if my school gave us iPods or iPads or something like that instead of a bunch of heavy books. My grandma has an iPad that I can sometimes play. She even has a pottery game that is really cool, and it lets you make pottery.

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Quotes from this week's reading:

"for example, he [Gee] says that learning through game play is active, meaningful, multimodal, scaffolded, entails participation in social networks, encourages learners to take risks and allows for self-reflection" (Carrington; quoted from Gee].

"there needs to be a shift away from the concept of an individual learner and that notions of mastery and pedagogy must be decenterd" (Carrington; quoted from Lave and Wenger 1991).

"Rather than focusing on technological skills, newmedia literacy involved a set of cultural competencies and social skills" (Carrington; quoted from Jenkins 2007).