What About Digital Literacy? (For 9/27/17)

***As I'm in the midst of doing laundry far from Wi-Fi, I'm attempting to write this blog post via my smartphone, so bare with me if the looks of this post comes out funny.

Anyways, I'm feel like both the Hicks' reading and the podcast were perfectly timed with how must I've been struggling to grasp digital literacy. It's certainly felt like the "talk" of this semester, but any time I've had field placement teachers ask me what digital literacy is, I haven't felt like I've been able to provide an adequate answer. Now, however, I feel like I'm starting to get the jist.

The way I understand digital lit. is by asking myself one question: Does the use of said digital resource impact the quality of a lesson on the bases of students practicing and/or attaining deeper levels of understand?

Even that question sounds a little wordy to me too, but what im 100% sure I do understand is that digital literacy goes far beyond just using technology. I actually laughed out loud when Hicks drew the comparison to 5 paragraph essays and powerpoints. I remember those days sitting in a classroom (middle school especially), and thinking of how much adults clung to powerpoints like saran wrap. They taught us about formats and transitions and all these funky things we could do with them, but when I actually think about it, I easily could have done a regular poster project with the same impact. This isn't to say that I don't think students should be familiar with word processing programs, but there is an internet world far beyond these limited programs. A question to further my understand in this topic is what as educators can we can do with these programs (because I do see value in them) to get students using these beyond just the classroom?

I was also intrigued about the different ways in which privilege impacts the relationship between students and technology. Not only on a basis of district and state funding for schools, but the question of how people's online identities transform from adolescents to adults. Who's to say that someone's old MySpace should be a benefactor in the hiring process? The podcast makes a strong claim for it being much more complicated for people of color because the white, dominant culture is more likely to be less forgiving of minority groups. With that said, I interested in other ways that students in poorly funded school can get access to more technology. Maybe this is far beyond my reach as an up and coming educator, but I didn't feel content with just depending on legislation to change (because that process takes forEVER).

I am interested to hear what others think about possible solutions!

Comments

  1. Bethany Rose BarsoianSeptember 27, 2017 at 9:09 AM


    Hi Janine,

    I think you raised a bunch of really important questions in your post! Before hearing this podcast, I had never put much thought into the relationship between one's level of privilege and technology....but I can now grasp the concept and definitely think it is a topic that warrants even further discussion among teacher candidates-especially those planning to work in less privileged school districts. I also think it is a slippery slope when it comes to judging someone based largely on their social media pages. Don't we all know the person who goes out of their way to constantly make sure they look "good" on social media? I think to some extent we all do it a little bit, even if subconsciously. Social media can make someone look horrible when they are actually not but it can also make someone look great when they are, in fact, horrible!

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  2. Dustin SnyderSeptember 27, 2017 at 3:04 PM

    Janine, your experience with teachers being dependent on PowerPoint presentations resonates with me. Knowing what I know now about multiple learning styles and differentiation makes me feel bad for any fellow students in those classes who couldn't process information efficiently through that medium. What you said about an internet world beyond limited programs stuck with me.
    In 407, Dr. Horwitz had us utilize quite a few different popular social media tools for assignments in order to give us ideas about how to utilize technology in ways that connects curriculum to the world our students live in. We made a Flipagram about backwards design, and trying to process how to use that technology to illustrate our ideas forced us to engage the material on a level far deeper than writing a paper or creating a PowerPoint. I think these are the types of ways we should be using technology in our classrooms.

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