Grace's+Digital+Literacy+Statement

=** Statement on Digital Literacy **= =** Grace Leu Summer 2012 **=

In the 21st century it has become unavoidable that students become fluent not only in the past literacy of the English language but also in a new literacy called digital literacy. Digital literacy is a literacy that, similar to a language, is a form of communication that has its own unique way of transferring knowledge. Just as language uses writing, reading, speaking, and listening to convey knowledge, so digital literacy uses various forms of media to transmit and receive knowledge.

Digital literacy has become necessary due to the rapid growth of technology in the 21st century where humans today are now communicating in very different ways than in previous generations. While written words are still a means of communicating, they are by far the only means. From a single individual to big corporations, ideas are being transmitted through multimedia such as documentaries, interactive websites, podcasts, and YouTube videos. All of these may include written words, but their effectiveness is often based on other factors.

Our youngest generation has been born in the digital age and along with their language development, they have also grown up utilizing and learning digital literacy. Children are taught skills of digital literacy at home and among friends as part of their means to communicate and express themselves just as they have learned to listen and speak prior to school (Kajder).

Still, just as there is much to learn about language literacy through formal education such as reading and writing, so digital literacy also needs to be taught in the 21st century classroom. Today’s students should be provided with systematic instruction that teaches them a set of digital literacy competencies:

1) Access to knowledge via the internet

Students will access academic and leisure information from the internet.
 * 1) Students will learn how to critically judge information on the internet and its validity (Jenkins).
 * 2) Students will learn to access information using search engines and how search is performed (for instance, the first link that comes up means in Google Search means it is the most popular link).
 * 3) Students can cite and utilize appropriate academic websites to find information that is relevant for their academic studies.
 * 4) Students will learn about plagiarism, the importance of citing sources from the website, and the correct way to cite sources (Jenkins, Hobbs).
 * 5) Students will be able to access and learn from the multimedia sources (such as audio books, podcasts, videos, and webquests) (Jenkins).

2) Communicate knowledge via the internet

Students will use the internet to communicate in a scholarly fashion to peers and teachers. Students will use the internet as a form of self-expression (Richardson).
 * 1) Students will learn to create academic based websites such as wikis and blogs.
 * 2) Students will be able to create a personal blog/social network in which they are able to post written work. Within their self-expression, students will learn the role and importance of ethics when publishing for the public domain (Jenkins).
 * 3) Students will learn to produce and share voice, video, and picture images on the internet (Prensky).
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will be able to access feedback (comments) written by others via the internet.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will learn to utilize online communities as a means to deliver ideas and develop interests.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will understand fair use and copyright laws and how these laws pertain to their creative and educational works (Hobbs).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">3) Multimedia use

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will learn to use different technologies to expand their digital literacy abilities.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will learn to create and manipulate voice, video, and picture images utilizing different software programs internet based and offline.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will learn to use technology hardware (such as computers, touch screens, digital cameras, scanners, SMARTboards, DVDs).
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will learn to utilize technology to assist them in applied mathematical skills (calculators, Excel programs, budgeting and tax applications).
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Students will learn how to transmit information from one technology to another (converting files, printing, digitalizing photos).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Within these competencies, the internet is used as a receiver and a transmitter of ideas. The internet instantly provides access to libraries of academic information as well as grass roots societies. Students must learn how to find relevant, valid information. Students need to critique what they are seeing and whether there are biases, inaccuracies, or propaganda within what they have found. In previous generations authors had to go through an extensive process and critique before their works could be accessed by the general public.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">With the advent of the internet students in a technology lab have the privilege of being an instant author and publisher to millions of internet users (Richardson). Students must be given tools to access this privilege as well as understand its implications. All students should have a fair chance to rein the power of the world wide web to engage in academic and social communities utilizing multimedia and internet communication competencies (Jenkins). They also must develop an ethical understanding of the implications of giving opinions, engage in debates, and creating ideas in a public domain (Hobbs, Jenkins). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">The competencies I have listed are intended to provide access to the internet, utilizing both its 1.0 and 2.0 web features of obtaining and communicating information. In this way students will develop the digital literacy skills they need to be successful in the 21st century age of technology.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">References **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Hobbs, R. (2010). //Copyright clarity: How fair use supports digital learning.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Hobbs, R. (2010). //Digital and media literacy: a plan of action. The Dupon Institute//. Washington, D.C.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Jenkins, H. (2009). //Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century//. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Kajder, Sara. (2010). // Adolescents and Digital Literacies: Learning Alongside Our Students. // Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Prensky, Marc. "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." //On the Horizon// 9.5 (2001): 1-6.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14.3833px;">Richardson, W. (2010). //Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Third Edition.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.