What do you know about digital literacy?
Digital literacy is a very small term that is used to describe a number of skills, functions, and qualities a person must develop to be able to use digital tools & devices effectively. There are so many skills we have automatically that others may see as “inate” however, it is one concept to have the skills but a completely new one to understand how you use them efficiently. By having & even using these skills, one is more apt to be able to communicate with each other electronically, understanding how to use and find knowledge on the internet, and complete tasks that are digitally oriented. There are a number of subcategories of various types of literacies that encompass digital literacy: Photo-Visual Literacy, Reproduction Literacy, Branching Literacy, Information Literacy, and Socio-Emotional Literacy. All of these have their own unique skills that a technologically savy user must be aware of and familiar with to use technology to the best of their ability. Photo-Visual Literacy is the ability to understand knowledge through looking at images or pictures. One must have emense “cognitive” skills to be able to read into information through visuals. Another type of literacy is Reproduction Literacy, skills that are developed enabling others to broadcast their creative works to others and allowing those learners to corperate their documents for their own use and understanding. Branching Literacy includes the skills that are developed enabling someone to use the information they have found to put it together cohesively to form their own knowledge. Socio-Emotional Literacy is the skills you must have to safely and effectively navigate your way around the internet such as knowing when sites are safe for your own use. The last kind of digital literacy is Information Literacy. This is the ability to find information you need through the internet.
What are your reactions to the idea that there are certain digital literacy skills?
I am not at all surprised there are digital literacy skills. Before this course began, there are a number of these skills that we all possed initially; however, it was beyond our thought process that these were titled and indefinately, even existed. Such things as Socio-Emotional literacy and Information Literacy are very important to me and I hope that I use these skills often. Circumstances such as trusting those you are recieving information from and communicating with online is an important tactic to treasure. Also, being able to find the documentation for educational use and knowledge is also very beneficial to all of use who need the resources or have a desire to learn more material. I feel as those all of these “digital literacy” skills are ones that all people involved with digital technology should encompass and in turn, most likely do. Skills such as motor control, cognitive thinking, and critical thinking skills are each a part of digital literacy; we each have some of these, at least I hope so. I am very glad and appreciative that I learned about these skills before it was too late and skills such as these were taken for granted.
How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?
My opinion of this question has changed many times, even in my own mind, to how this will effect learners growing up in a technological world. However, I do not feel that these skills are “new”. I feel and hope as though they have always existed, just not named and throught critically about. I am under the impression though, as teachers will be certain to instill these many skills in their students in hopes they will develop them at a faster pace; fulfilling their potential of use of the internet and digital capabilities.
Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival in the digital era. Journal of
Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93 -106. Retrieved November 12, 2006.
I agree that these skills can be taken for granted. I didn’t even really know what they were before this class. I had never even thought about it.
I agree taht we have had these skills all along and udes them without knowing. I am glad that I learned about these skills too because we will learn from them in the future.
I really like the sentence you used – “Circumstances such as trusting those you are recieving information from and communicating with online is an important tactic to treasure.” This could not be more true. There is so much out there that we have no idea about-whether it’s good or bad. Having the adequate skills is absolutely necessary.
My opinion about how digital literacy has changed education has also changed many times because in one sense, I believe that these skills are useful for learning, but I have also expressed that students become too reliant on technology. I do, however, agree that these skills will help students when learning in a digital world.