''Digital Nation: Life On The Virtual Frontier'' is an interactive website and

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

documentary, first aired February 2, 2010, from Producer and Director

Rachel Dretzin Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...

and correspondent

Douglas Rushkoff Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open sourc ...

. The website features segments from the film in production,

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

s from the production team, and user-generated video and audio about experiences with technology. The documentary's premise is "to examine the risks and possibilities, myths and realities presented by the new digital culture we all inhabit" and "aims to capture life on the digital frontier and explore how the Web and digital media are changing the way we think, work, learn, and interact." ''Digital Nation'' has partnered with the Verizon Foundation to create this multiplatform initiative and is projected to air nationally on the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

(PBS) in early 2010.

Website and participation

Recent features on the website include South Korea's professional online video gamers and stories gaming addiction, schools that are integrating technology in the classroom and the military's new techniques for training soldiers and treating

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

. Content is broken down by interest with subjects such as Living Faster, Military, Relationships, and Virtual Worlds. The public is invited to participate in the making of ''Digital Nation'' by submitting personal stories about technology using video,

photo collage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...

, audio or

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

, to the Your Digital Nation section of the website. Digital Nation partnered with Smith Magazine to create a memoir series called "6 Words on Digital Life," in which people choose six words that describe their digital lives. Alongside promotion of user-generated content, the ''Digital Nation'' team will host

internet safety Internet safety or online safety or cyber safety and E-Safety is trying to be safe on the internet and is the act of maximizing a user's awareness of personal safety and security risks to private information and property associated with using the i ...

workshops for teachers and parents, and create a

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

for middle and high school students that will be available through the ''Digital Nation'' website, the Verizon Foundation's free educational website Thinkfinity.org, and

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's sec ...

's Teachers' Domain.

People

''Digital Nation'' has interviewed prominent scholars and educators for the documentary, many of whom are featured on the website:

Mark Bauerlein Mark Weightman Bauerlein (born 1959) is an English professor emeritus at Emory University and senior editor of ''First Things'' journal. He also serves as a visitor of Ralston College, a start-up liberal arts college in Savannah. Early life ...

, Dr. Jerald Block,

danah boyd danah boyd (stylized in lowercase, born November 24, 1977 as Danah Michele Mattas) She noted her mother added lowercase 'h' in birth name "danah" for typographical balance, reflecting the lowercase first letter 'd' and later changed her last na ...

Anne Collier Anne Collier (born Los Angeles, 1970) is an American visual artist working with appropriated photographic images. Describing Collier's work in ''Frieze'' art magazine, writer Brian Dillon said, "Collier uncouples the machinery of appropriation so ...

, Secretary of Education

Arne Duncan Arne Starkey Duncan (born November 6, 1964) is an American educator who served as United States Secretary of Education from 2009 to 2015 and as Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2008. A lifelong resident of Chicago, Du ...

James Paul Gee James Gee (; born April 15, 1948) is a retired American researcher who has worked in psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, and literacy. Gee most recently held the position as the Mary Lou Fulton Presidentia ...

Henry Jenkins Henry Jenkins III (born June 4, 1958) is an American media scholar and Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication an ...

, Francoise LeGoues,

Gloria Mark Gloria Janet Mark is an American psychologist. She is Chancellor's professor in the Department of Informatics at University of California, Irvine.

, Dr.

Clifford Nass Clifford Ivar Nass (April 3, 1958 – November 2, 2013) was a professor of communications, communication at Stanford University, co-creator of ''The Media Equation'' theory, and a renowned authority on Human Computer Interaction, human-computer i ...

Marc Prensky Marc Prensky (born March 15, 1946, New York City, United States) is an American writer and speaker on education. He is best known as the creator of the terms "Digital native" and " digital immigrant" which he described in a 2001 article in "On th ...

, Albert "Skip" Rizzo,

Philip Rosedale Philip Rosedale (born September 29, 1968) is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world ''Second Life''. Biography Early life Rosedale was born in San Diego, California, in 1968. He took an inter ...

Noah Shachtman Noah Shachtman is an American journalist, and musician. He is the editor-in-chief of ''Rolling Stone''. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Beast''. He previously was the executive editor of the site. A former non-re ...

P. W. Singer Peter Warren Singer (born 1974) is an American political scientist, an international relations scholar and a specialist on 21st century warfare. He is a ''New York Times'' bestselling author of both nonfiction and fiction, who has been describe ...

and Dr.

Sherry Turkle Sherry Turkle (born June 18, 1948) is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She obtained an BA in social studies and later a PhD in sociology and person ...

References

{{reflist American documentary television films