Michael+Stuart's+Statement+on+DL

The 21st century has ushered in a new era of communication that our traditional instructional methods must account for in order for students to succeed in the new global environment they will find themselves in upon entering the workforce. Our students will need to have the skills to succeed in the collaborative atmospheres that many industries are now making a standard practice. Students will need to have a new //digital literacy// in addition to the standard reading and writing literacy skills that have been the primary focus for the past three centuries of public education. Current students have grown up in an age where most everyone has access to the Internet and other technologies at a very early age (Prensky, 4). Those students are growing up in an age where Wikipedia is a major source of information for the vast majority of the population, and anyone can be a journalist and an editor to an unimaginable audience at any moment. But students need to learn how to use these technologies in ways that enable them to make smart and correct decisions on what they see and create on the Internet. They must be able to protect themselves in an atmosphere where anyone can see what someone has put online. Lastly, students must be able to communicate with others in an effective manner without ever having to meet those others in person. In today’s educational environment, we as teachers must allow our students to learn several digital literacy skills that will enable them to succeed, and indeed thrive, online: //Students must be able to collaborate clearly and succinctly with others in an online environment:// - Students will learn to use tools that allow them to interact in non-face-to-face settings (such as video conferencing, chat rooms, comment sections of webpages, etc.) - Students will work in groups to create and edit content online – they will learn to work cooperatively and engage in online conversation with others to further their knowledge (Richardson, 154)
 * Michael Stuart's Statement on Digital Literacy**

//Students must be able to aggregate information and judge the accuracy and reliability of what they find on the Internet:// - Students will be able to decide whether or not a source is a credible one and whether they should trust that information (Jenkins, 43) - Students will be able to search for and access a variety of information sources (blogs, articles, wikis, newspapers, online databases, etc.) on their own - Students will look for sources used and at who authored what content before deciding to trust the information - Students will be able to decide which sources are acceptable to utilize (Richardson, 152)

//Students must understand copyright laws and their own rights when working online:// - Students will learn about fair use laws and what it means for students and what it will mean for them once they are no longer in an educational environment - Students will learn how to make content transformative or useful in a way that is different from a creation’s original intent in order to abide by copyright law - Students will know how to make attributions in a proper manner (Hobbs, 8)

//Students must know how to create and share digital content:// - Students will be able to create and share videos, images, and written content via the Internet (Prensky, 4) - Students will contribute to discussions in a variety of mediums (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, wikis, discussion forums, etc.) and in a meaningful manner - Students will use social networks to share their creations to a wide audience (Hobbs, 131)

Students are no longer living in a world where the traditional (or “legacy” according to Prensky) forms of knowledge are sufficient to succeed. Students must be able to work online to find and share content and ideas. Once students are confident in their digital skills, they will be able to master and adapt to new technologies easier, giving them an advantage over those who are unable to learn new technological skills. Our role as teachers is to give them this confidence and ability that will make our students digitally literate.

//**Sources:**// Hobbs, R. (2010). //Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

[|Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media education for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.]

[|Prensky, Marc. "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." On the Horizon 9.5 (2001)]

Richardson, W. (2010). //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.// Third Edition//.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.