Adolescent Interview:
Dylan is my sixteen year-old nephew who lives in New York City and attends Brooklyn Latin High School. When I called to interview Dylan from my home in Wisconsin, my sister, Dylan’s mom, suggested I would have a good chance of reaching him if I tried Skyping him. She actually said I would have a better chance of getting his attention this way. When I pressed her, she reluctantly went on foot to journey all the way through the house searching for the human as opposed to virtual form of her son. Much to my amazement, Dylan took the phone and I was saved from having to set up a webcam and speakers.
Dylan lives with his mom, dad, and two dogs in Queens, New York. His sister recently left home for her freshman year of Art school in Seattle, and he misses her very much. Here is some information about Dylan’s school, Brooklyn Latin (2014). This is the school’s mission statement:
The Brooklyn Latin School provides a specialized, classical education, including the study of Latin and Greek, in a disciplined academic environment. It provides the groundwork for an understanding of the foundation of our society, while developing the leadership capacity of our students so that they may serve as leaders in their communities.
Brooklyn Latin is not a traditional high school. For instance, every student takes part in a Declamation three times per year. At Brooklyn Latin:
Discipuli [pupils] audition for public declamation three times a year, memorizing passages from literature to perform for the entire school community. Once a year, on Founder’s Day, the year’s best declaimers compete for the schools’ top declamation prize.
Declamations are given in Latin as is the tradition of the school.
Dylan is a soft-spoken, yet deep-voiced young man of sixteen going on seventeen. I hardly ever get to see him, and when I do he is always involved in some aspect of technology. He really only started to socialize at family gatherings about six months ago after meeting his first girlfriend. Dylan greeted me politely and agreed to answer my questions. Although I expected him to offer monosyllabic grunts and brief answers, like my brothers would have done at his age, he was thoughtful, extremely well-spoken, and a great pleasure to interview.
Here is how our discussion proceeded:
Me: Thanks for talking to me, Dylan. It’s nice to hear your voice. What have I just
pulled you away from?
Dylan: Um, actually I was on Skype Hang Out.
Me: How long have you been online today?
Dylan: A few hours, I guess.
Me: So can you tell me about Hang Out?
Dylan: Well, I Skype after school everyday. A bunch of people hang out on Skype.
Me: How interesting . . . do you hang out with people you know, or strangers?
Dylan: Well, actually, there is a group of us that hangs out everyday . . . do you want
me to name them?
Me: That would be great, if you don’t mind.
Dylan: Okay, well Brian is a friend I went to school with two years ago, before Brooklyn
Latin. Then there is Nicholas from Germany, Dawn from Long Island, and Arbaaz who I met through Brian, and the last one is Ben, from Florida.
Me: Does it get boring talking to the same people everyday? Do you do other
things while you Skype?
Dylan: We do other things while we hang out. Play games, surf around. Binding of
Isaac Rebirth just came out yesterday so everyone is playing it. It’s a single
player game, but we have contests to see who can score highest.
Dylan then explained that it takes him very little time to master a new game due to his extensive background of game playing. He says he picks them up very fast, even the hardest games. He referred to this latest game as an “isometric tutor,” a term unfamiliar to me and he explained that he has to be ready to dodge 50 bullets at a time at any given moment. I have looked up Isometric tutorials and I have to say the material is way over my head (Hodge, 2011). When asked Dylan if he uses a joystick or special controller, he explained that the computer keyboard works just as well and so he uses no special equipment.
Me: What keeps you motivated to play games, Dylan?
Dylan: Contests, being good at it.
Me: Okay, but what is it about the games themselves that keeps your attention for so
long?
Dylan: Every run takes about an hour if you are successful, but every run is completely
randomized. There are different power-ups, different tools . . . you will never play
the same game twice.
Me: So you like the fact that it is always new and engaging and that helps you to stay
self-motivated.
Dylan: I guess I am self-motivated. I never really thought about it.
Me: Well, nobody is making you play the games, so there must be some
self-motivation involved, right? I received no answer.
Dylan: Well my favorite game is actually Dota 2. It’s a five vs. five team game that
would take seven years to explain . . . it’s a multiplayer game.
Me: That’s okay, you don’t need to explain . . . Can you tell me what you think of old
time games, like PacMan, Frogger, the stuff me and your mom used to play on
our lunch break?
Dylan: I’ve played PacMan.
Me: What do you think of the game?
Dylan: It’s a simple concept that uses the tech of the time very well. Impressively
executed. Five pixels to work with, an objective, different maps, interesting.
Next, we talked about school and the use of technology in the classroom. Dylan is clearly very proud of his school, Brooklyn Latin, and he is seemingly in awe of his teachers.
We spoke about “digital natives,” and “digital immigrants,” and I asked Dylan to comment on whether he thought this was an issue at his school (Bennett & Maton, 2010).
Dylan: At Brooklyn Latin we have good tech and the teachers are very good with kids.
There is no technological disconnect between the students and teachers, but I can
see how this might happen with older teachers who are not tech savvy. Also, Brooklyn Latin teachers all have their own personal websites that they keep updated with information and assignments, and there is a smart board in every classroom.
Me: Smartboards in every room; that’s great. Have you ever been taught subject
matter through an online game?
Dylan answered that he had never been taught using an online game, and that online games were not part of his curriculum. He sits in a chair, facing the Smartboard and listens to instruction. In spite of this traditional picture, Dylan claims that his teachers are interactive, keep the class moving, and are personally involved with their students. They have personalities that are enjoyable to be around. They are funny, witty, and down to earth. Then I threw Dylan a curve ball.
Me: Okay, well you’ve had technology at your fingertips since you were able to walk,
and yet your school seems to be fairly traditional . . .. How do you learn best?
Dylan: What do you mean?
Me: Do you feel that you learn better, or more online than at school, or the other way
around?
It had not occurred to Dylan that he was learning anything online, or that the Internet could be a viable source of education. He thought about this for a few minutes and said, “games do help with critical thinking and problem solving.” This young man is involved in self-motivated, experiential learning on a daily basis and has not been made aware of the fact. He thinks his high school is high-tech, as schools go, and has never experienced gaming of any type in the classroom.
On the subject of social media, Dylan has little to say. He does not like the responsibility of going to check a page everyday, even though it’s just a click, and he worries about colleges seeing something negative about him when he is ready to send in his applications next year. I asked him if he thought that colleges might think his lack of social media activity could be looked at negatively, and he understood my concern and said he would probably just delete his Facebook page entirely since he hasn’t checked it in three years.
Me: So there is no payoff to visiting social media sites and you just can’t be bothered?
Dylan: I see the advantages of the social aspect, but it does not interest me as much as the
direct interaction on Skype or a Live Stream where you watch something at the same time as someone else.
I decided to return to the subject of the Internet as a learning resource.
Me: If you needed help with some math and there was nobody to assist, would you
consider a video for online learning?
Dylan: I’ve never really thought about it, but I supposed I might look at a video as a
supplement, but not as a replacement for education.
Dylan and I spoke about the Kahn Academy, and talked about its history and how it came to be a well-respected online education resource. He told me he isn’t one to click on ads at first, but then came to understand that this is something new, something that he was unaware of before now.
Me: Would you play a game to learn on purpose, like a math mastery game? If it had
all your favorite aspects?
Dylan: None of the educational games are fun.
Me: But you told me you never played online educational games. I’m talking about an
online math mastery game that has all the elements of your favorite games.
Would you play?
Dylan: If it is well executed I will play it.
Very definitive. Dylan knows what he likes, and knows what he wants and he is a discerning gamer. When asked about game creation and design, Dylan said that he knows something about it but not enough to speak comfortably about the subject. He did mention that Edmund McMillen is his favorite game designer, and everyone who games knows his name because he designs all the best games. The Binding of Isaac games are created by McMillan (Wikipedia, 2014). It appears there are famous game designers and this was news to me.
For further information about the games that Dylan is playing and prefers:
As per Wikipedia, (2014), The Binding of Isaac is a 2011 independent video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. It was released on Steam on September 28, 2011. Players control a crying naked child named Isaac or one of six other unlockable characters. After his mother receives a message from God demanding the life of her son as proof of her faith, Isaac flees into the monster-filled basement of their home.
Dota 2 is played in discrete matches involving two five-player teams, each of which occupies a stronghold at a corner of the map. Each stronghold contains a building called the "Ancient", which the opposite team must destroy to win the match (Wikipedia, 2014). Each player controls a "Hero" character and focuses on leveling up, collecting gold, acquiring items and fighting against the other team to achieve victory (Wikipedia, 2014).
Interestingly, although Dylan would be considered by Prensky to be a “digital native” in the truest sense, Dylan has not been educated by true “digital natives” and only knows what he experiences at school is the expected “norm” for school (2001). Prensky’s digital natives are unaware of the divide between themselves and their immigrant educators (2001).
Dylan respects and admires his teachers without question and has a clear delineation in his mind between school (education) and online (fun, socialization, gaming). It will be interesting to follow up with Dylan to see if he looks at The Khan Academy, games for educational purposes online, or changes his online routine in any way based on our conversation which I believe was mutually enlightening.
Reference
Bennett, S., & Maton, K. (2010). Beyond the ‘digital natives’ debate: Towards a more nuanced
understanding of students' technology experiences. Journal of computer assisted
learning, 26(5), 321-331.
Hodge, S. (2011, November 15). 15 Illustrator Tutorials for Creating Isometric Illustrations.
Retrieved from
design.tutsplus.com/articles/15-illustrator-tutorials-for-creating-isometric-illustrations--ve
ctor-5017
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On The Horizon, 9(5). Retrieved from
migrants.pdf
Wikipedia. (2014, November 4). Dota 2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved November
Wikipedia. (2014, November 5). The Binding of Isaac (video game) - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. Retrieved November 5, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_(video_game)
